"Curiosity has peeked my interest," Arbon says to the others, "Do you mind if I take an hour to procure a ladder to investigate that hole in the roof?"
"I don't mind," said Onyx, reappearing with three mysterious bottles. He tucked them away for later examination as he sat down to read through his book of shadows.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Arbon nods and sits down with his smith's tools in front of him. You see him close his eyes and silently commune with his patron, Gond, and as he opens his eyes you notice that the smith's hammer begins to glow with a divine light. As he gathers up some of the scraps of metal and wood strewn about in the stables, he takes about to hammering it with this hammer and as he does, you see the metal twist and form, less by force of hammer and more by will as Arbon focusses on creating the ladder. At the end of the hour, the final blow is made and the hammer returns to its usual non-candescent form, but in front of a sweating Arbon lies a ladder, just big enough for him to climb up to the roof.
"Phew. That was quite exciting. I've never gotten the opportunity to work with my patron like that before. Thank you for waiting all." He picks up the ladder and positions it under the hole. Arbon picks up a stone or small piece of scrap on the floor and casts light on it before climbing up the ladder to the hole and carefully sliding the lit stone into the small hole to aid his search and highlight anything unsavoury up there. He first peeks through the hole, bobbing his head this way and that as he tries to see if there is anything he can make out in the hole (Perception: 8).
If he sees no creatures that would ward him off from reaching up into the arm-sized hole, he looks down the others. "I don't see anything untoward in there. Chazrael, if you could get your new pet to come and search, it would surely fit. I'm not the best at finding things but here goes." He then reaches up and feels around as best he can (Investigation: 11).
Peering into the hole with the light reveals that it was indeed the nest of some bird creature, its rotting feathers still strewn about the place. It must have left within the last year as feathers aren't exactly as durable as stone. When Arbon places a hand upon the nest, he is immediately made aware of an object inside. He then witnesses a small miracle in the seconds after it enters his vision.
There is a broken, faded, pastel green, egg in your palm. A small pile of neon green firefly looking dust spills out and reacts to the light before disappearing. As you complete the sentence about having Chazrael's owl investigate this space, you look back from the ladder and notice that its staring directly into your eyes, almost patiently waiting for you to reveal what you have found.
Arbon blinks a couple of times as he looks down from the ladder at the owl on Chazrael's shoulder. He slowly withdraws his hand from the hole, carefully holding the item found in the nest. As he gets to the bottom he holds out his hand and slowly opens his hand to reveal the broken, faded green egg in his hand for all to see. He looks directly at the owl, "Something of yours perhaps, little one?"
(DM Question - did Arbon feel anything else as he picked up the egg? The glowing dust that was on the egg didn't have any immediate and noticeable effects?)
Chazrael's owl leaves his shoulder to inspect the remains of the egg casing. It twists its head in confusion, seemingly not understanding something, though the connection is mysterious to all. It finally lowers its head, placing its forehead against the egg for sometime before it began to fade. Whatever magics had pulled forth the creature from the ether now appeared to be weakening.
Then, without much warning, as if it had never been there, the owl and egg vanished.
A voice ran through the stables. Its quiet, and light. A child's voice.
"...ttthank yyyyou!..."
It echoed slightly before leaving.
In the still moments after, a brilliant green light erupted from the hole where the egg was and a whisp of similarly colored energy floated out to the floor. The ball twisted and morphed into a glowing human shaped spirit wearing an owl mask with emerald eyes. It stood before you a moment, studying. It then bowed its head in respect, and began observing quietly again.
(Its large, taller than any of you by a solid foot. Its also somewhat transparent. Also also, Arbon wouldn't have felt much on the egg but the color of the dust matches the spirit)
"What in the world did you uncover, Arbon?!" asked Onyx in shock as he stood. Intrigued, he spent a moment taking in the scene, before slowly approaching the newcomer.
"Hello? Do you... can you understand us?" he asked. Unsure of himself, the warlock repeated the greeting in Elvish, Draconic, and finally, with a nervous laugh, in the Auran dialect of Primordial.
"Just the egg," Arbon replies. He bows in return to the spirit standing before them, then addressing the spirit, "I hope that you can rest easy now. Though how you came to be in a place such as this I am at a loss."
As Onyx spoke, the bird creature looked on frozen, unmoved. It neither spoke nor acted, yet when Arbon & Chazrael spoke, it made noticeable gestures. The first, a head tilt. Towards Arbon's comment, it appeared genuinely confused at its eyes and neck shifted left and right, to look about the room as if it had always been there, and nothing was odd. When Chazrael acknowledged the appreciation the small voice had, it graciously bowed, its eyes closed. When its head rose, it offered and unyielding gaze...
To those who cannot maintain, or do not make, eye contact...
The owl creatures eyes glowed brightly, then it disappeared. The others appear to be transfixed in a thousand yard stare to where the creature formerly was before shaking it off and seating themselves.
To those who make eye contact, and hold it...
Deep into the owl mask's pools of emerald light your mind dives, a spiritual force pulling you into its stare like a whirlpool. In a flood of green your mind goes blank before appearing in a much different place. The stables, now fixed and well taken care of, appear to have been in some distant shire or abbey at one time. It had goats, straw, and, a small barn owl with green feathers just living on a farm.
When you walk into where the gate room would be, you merely exit the stables and see a bright sunny day, of no particular importance. There are great spring blooms all about, and the people there move as villagers do in times of prosperity.
Then, like a cloud upon a wind, a great buzzing fog came over the mountain. What appeared to be an overpowered peak mist, was in fact a controlled swarm of insects that blew through the town. They devoured the plants, the pasture animals, and then came for the people. At the same time, several extremely powerful mages appeared to combat the threat, casting magical fire into the hordeand opening demi plane portals hurrying people through. It was a fierce battle, with some of them dying in the effort, especially when the insect's master, some twisted woodland dweller consumed by dark magics, entered the town. The primary mage fell defending three young apprentices, who conjoined a spell empowered by rage to destroy the foe. The bugs fell, but the valley was burning, the smoke staining the land and killing trapped creatures.
At the far side of town, a farmer ran bloodied to his stable, the rest of his farm lost. With some luck, the creatures inside had cowered and survived, though the building had suffered much damage. He ran outside again when he saw one of the mages that stood alongside the primary, an elder woman who was clearly a colleague or perhaps an equal, and begged them to save the animals. She agreed and explained that she could take them with her, "and the shed too." if he wanted, smiling towards the man. His face of sheer relief and joy was something she would remember all her life.
He died then, simply exhausted and too damaged from the battle. She put the man to rest on his burning farm porch, then walked into the stable. She read from a scroll, and a large blue circle with many magical symbols appeared around the building. In a flash of light, the scroll evaporated, and the: building, mystic, and all the animals disappeared from the valley.
As the rest of the village burned, the blue light set off a chain reaction. Several other buildings were encircled in their own blue light and disappeared. The few that remained consumed the town in engulfed in flames, and the valley burned to ash.
The image fades once again to complete green and you're back in the ruined stables inside the mountain.
Arbon looks around the room with awe as he sees the vision before him. Then blinks as it disappears as quickly as it came. He looks at the ring in his hand, with the shape of a ram encrusted with the smallest red gems for eyes that almost seem to glow with fiery brilliance. He looks to the others, "Did you all see that vision too? It seems this was not all meant to be here. Whoever they were, they only wished to escape a terrible fate, only to end up here." He hangs his head as he considers the poor souls, then sets his jaw as he looks at the others. "Shall we continue to search? Or do you wish to move on?"
Grahl stands nearby looking at the others as they interact with the owl. When it freezes once more Grahl is distrustfull of it and looks around avoiding its eye contact.
When looking back he sees others staring into the distance More magic.. he growls to himself more than anyone else. Grahl takes a few steps towards them but before reaching them they snap out of it.
Grahl no see vision. Magic curse you, Grahl see you stare into nothing.He looks around trying to spot lurking foes.
As he looks down he sees his axe glow giving off a little light even. With Grahl focussing on it the light slowly fades again mumbling to himself Gruumsh protect Grahl from evil magic.
"I think I saw what you saw," said Onyx slowly, touching a medallion hanging from his neck that hadn't been there before. "But, yes, I'm ready to move on if you are."
Back at the final door, there is a sense of remembrance as you fly through a whirlwind of memories...
(Just a quick recap on everything that has happened so far)
Back in the desert, you walk the path into Ahm Hamu and see the Hunter's Cottage again. The black runes scrawled all over his walls clearly some kind of graffiti placed there by the same demons spraying it all about the mines. The silver windchimes must have come from the copious metal stores in the mine too, many of which have not had proper usage in some time. You can't see him or the dog, curiously, and you flash forward to the Laughing Tree. There's a quick burst of fear as you fly down the mine shaft coming to the ruined sleeping quarters and fighting the Maw Demon off. A little further and you remember picking up your new weapons and fighting the gas demon who blew the hunter down many flights of stairs.
You wonder what happened to the broken man, and are reminded of the sudden drop off into the deeper mine. Far down into the Dwarven laboratories and then finally into their hidden delves. Far below the world, you entered the devil's cube, and the Werewolf among you was exposed, to the bone. No vigil is held, there is no body to bury, and you moved on to face your first planar shift into the mirror world. You killed the guard dogs and lit the braziers. You walked beyond the hall of the dead, and summoned an Owl's body there, its restless spirit opting to join you for a time.
More mirrors in caves-you break them-possible fearing another planar shift. You are right to have done so, nothing beneficial awaited you there. As with the statue. Though you collected many fine objects from the demon's herald, you are faced with yet another mirrored world.
Entering your second shift, you are exposed to the cave birds who apparently tried to torture the Herald. You killed them, released their master's prisoner, then killed all of them too. You left their books and most of their legacies behind, perhaps fearing further distraction. Leaving the owl to rest, you were awarded with a sort of grace, be it the ability to see spiritual beings at a distance or disintegrate low health fiends on contact.
What a long strange trip its been.
And you're back at the massive golden handle. You open the door, and walk inside.
Inside, you find an island floating in a void of space. Upon the island lies a kind of castle, evidently housing something extremely powerful as you can feel its presence in the form of direct pressure on your temples and body in general. Its nauseating to stand in this aura, like smelling rotten food while sea sick, and you can't imagine anything good coming of the path ahead. From your little stone platform to the island is a rope bridge that looks sturdy enough to hold several elephants juggling each other. Its seems overkill, but upon looking over the edge, you're glad there's so many.
That is one hell of a drop.
(possible RP pause)
The crossing takes less than 15 minutes. Surely it could have been faster but running over a swaying bridge over an eternal pit is not how winners are made so you slowly creep over it and stand before the castle gates. They open for you, aware of your fate.
(possible RP pause)
Inside, there's an enormous staircase in the middle of the room that separates the view into quarters. The upper left corner probably leads to some kind of bed chamber. The right, possibly some kind of study or work office. To the left of the stairs and below the Bed Chambers floor, lies the kitchen and scullery. The final door to the bottom right is probably some matter of access or garden walk ways.
Fortunately, you don't need to contemplate the rooms or their contents long. A goat horned fiend jauntily walks down the stairs as if it has nothing to worry about. Its somewhat surprised that you are here, but doesn't betray this with anything more than a sharp intake of air once it raises its head to actually see you.
It remains at the center of the staircase on the second floor and begins to chant and cast something.
Arbon looks over the side, "Best not get too close, my friends. I'm not sure if any of us can catch you if you fall in. That is most definitely not like that pit you all jumped into and had trouble finding your way out of."
(OOC - at second pause)
Arbon looks closely at the gates as they swing open. "What is with the gates in this place? They look immense, and yet move with such ease. I would love to know how they did it. I can think of a few places that would benefit from such brilliant craftsmanship."
(OOC - at finale)
Arbon watches curiously as the goat-man walks down the stairs, "Another goat," he mutters under his breath. But then, as the goat starts to cast something he calls out, "No! Another oracle performing some incantation. Stop so that we can talk!" But he readies a sacred flame to throw at the fiend should it not heed his words.
Before crossing the bridge Grahl holds his forearm in front of his nose once more. Bah.. more demon smell. He will then cross the bridge stopping somewhere along the way to look down while holding onto the ropes. Maybe demon pithe says still making a disgusted face from the smell but not having the free hands to cover his nose.
( at second pause)
Grahl listens to Arbon being impressed with the building. But Grahl merely thinks back at the the previous rooms with demons. Big gate hide many things. Once inside he will gaze around at the massive place and wonder what all this room is for. Could there be a creature so large or perhaps just many.
( finale )
With the goat beginning its chant Grahl raises his axehandle to hold with both hands and starts his movement towards the goat but is halted as Arbons words seem to stop it. Somewhat relaxing at the goatmans fearfull words he releases a hand from the handle and looks back a moment to the others.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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(Theres bits and pieces of metal like nails and struts but nothing large enough to be called a ladder.)
(( Any results from the potions Onyx tested out? ))
Sterling - V. Human Bard 3 (College of Art) - [Pic] - [Traits] - in Bards: Dragon Heist (w/ Mansion) - Jasper's [Pic] - Sterling's [Sigil]
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
"Curiosity has peeked my interest," Arbon says to the others, "Do you mind if I take an hour to procure a ladder to investigate that hole in the roof?"
"I don't mind," said Onyx, reappearing with three mysterious bottles. He tucked them away for later examination as he sat down to read through his book of shadows.
Sterling - V. Human Bard 3 (College of Art) - [Pic] - [Traits] - in Bards: Dragon Heist (w/ Mansion) - Jasper's [Pic] - Sterling's [Sigil]
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Arbon nods and sits down with his smith's tools in front of him. You see him close his eyes and silently commune with his patron, Gond, and as he opens his eyes you notice that the smith's hammer begins to glow with a divine light. As he gathers up some of the scraps of metal and wood strewn about in the stables, he takes about to hammering it with this hammer and as he does, you see the metal twist and form, less by force of hammer and more by will as Arbon focusses on creating the ladder. At the end of the hour, the final blow is made and the hammer returns to its usual non-candescent form, but in front of a sweating Arbon lies a ladder, just big enough for him to climb up to the roof.
"Phew. That was quite exciting. I've never gotten the opportunity to work with my patron like that before. Thank you for waiting all." He picks up the ladder and positions it under the hole. Arbon picks up a stone or small piece of scrap on the floor and casts light on it before climbing up the ladder to the hole and carefully sliding the lit stone into the small hole to aid his search and highlight anything unsavoury up there. He first peeks through the hole, bobbing his head this way and that as he tries to see if there is anything he can make out in the hole (Perception: 8).
If he sees no creatures that would ward him off from reaching up into the arm-sized hole, he looks down the others. "I don't see anything untoward in there. Chazrael, if you could get your new pet to come and search, it would surely fit. I'm not the best at finding things but here goes." He then reaches up and feels around as best he can (Investigation: 11).
Peering into the hole with the light reveals that it was indeed the nest of some bird creature, its rotting feathers still strewn about the place. It must have left within the last year as feathers aren't exactly as durable as stone. When Arbon places a hand upon the nest, he is immediately made aware of an object inside. He then witnesses a small miracle in the seconds after it enters his vision.
There is a broken, faded, pastel green, egg in your palm. A small pile of neon green firefly looking dust spills out and reacts to the light before disappearing. As you complete the sentence about having Chazrael's owl investigate this space, you look back from the ladder and notice that its staring directly into your eyes, almost patiently waiting for you to reveal what you have found.
Arbon blinks a couple of times as he looks down from the ladder at the owl on Chazrael's shoulder. He slowly withdraws his hand from the hole, carefully holding the item found in the nest. As he gets to the bottom he holds out his hand and slowly opens his hand to reveal the broken, faded green egg in his hand for all to see. He looks directly at the owl, "Something of yours perhaps, little one?"
(DM Question - did Arbon feel anything else as he picked up the egg? The glowing dust that was on the egg didn't have any immediate and noticeable effects?)
Chazrael's owl leaves his shoulder to inspect the remains of the egg casing. It twists its head in confusion, seemingly not understanding something, though the connection is mysterious to all. It finally lowers its head, placing its forehead against the egg for sometime before it began to fade. Whatever magics had pulled forth the creature from the ether now appeared to be weakening.
Then, without much warning, as if it had never been there, the owl and egg vanished.
A voice ran through the stables. Its quiet, and light. A child's voice.
"...ttthank yyyyou!..."
It echoed slightly before leaving.
In the still moments after, a brilliant green light erupted from the hole where the egg was and a whisp of similarly colored energy floated out to the floor. The ball twisted and morphed into a glowing human shaped spirit wearing an owl mask with emerald eyes. It stood before you a moment, studying. It then bowed its head in respect, and began observing quietly again.
(Its large, taller than any of you by a solid foot. Its also somewhat transparent. Also also, Arbon wouldn't have felt much on the egg but the color of the dust matches the spirit)
"What in the world did you uncover, Arbon?!" asked Onyx in shock as he stood. Intrigued, he spent a moment taking in the scene, before slowly approaching the newcomer.
"Hello? Do you... can you understand us?" he asked. Unsure of himself, the warlock repeated the greeting in Elvish, Draconic, and finally, with a nervous laugh, in the Auran dialect of Primordial.
Sterling - V. Human Bard 3 (College of Art) - [Pic] - [Traits] - in Bards: Dragon Heist (w/ Mansion) - Jasper's [Pic] - Sterling's [Sigil]
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
"Just the egg," Arbon replies. He bows in return to the spirit standing before them, then addressing the spirit, "I hope that you can rest easy now. Though how you came to be in a place such as this I am at a loss."
Chazrael nods as he sees the figure. "You're very welcome," he tells the voice. He listens, and observes Arbon as he talks to the spirit.
I have an intelligence of six, I know what I'm doing.
As Onyx spoke, the bird creature looked on frozen, unmoved. It neither spoke nor acted, yet when Arbon & Chazrael spoke, it made noticeable gestures. The first, a head tilt. Towards Arbon's comment, it appeared genuinely confused at its eyes and neck shifted left and right, to look about the room as if it had always been there, and nothing was odd. When Chazrael acknowledged the appreciation the small voice had, it graciously bowed, its eyes closed. When its head rose, it offered and unyielding gaze...
To those who cannot maintain, or do not make, eye contact...
The owl creatures eyes glowed brightly, then it disappeared. The others appear to be transfixed in a thousand yard stare to where the creature formerly was before shaking it off and seating themselves.
To those who make eye contact, and hold it...
Deep into the owl mask's pools of emerald light your mind dives, a spiritual force pulling you into its stare like a whirlpool. In a flood of green your mind goes blank before appearing in a much different place. The stables, now fixed and well taken care of, appear to have been in some distant shire or abbey at one time. It had goats, straw, and, a small barn owl with green feathers just living on a farm.
When you walk into where the gate room would be, you merely exit the stables and see a bright sunny day, of no particular importance. There are great spring blooms all about, and the people there move as villagers do in times of prosperity.
Then, like a cloud upon a wind, a great buzzing fog came over the mountain. What appeared to be an overpowered peak mist, was in fact a controlled swarm of insects that blew through the town. They devoured the plants, the pasture animals, and then came for the people. At the same time, several extremely powerful mages appeared to combat the threat, casting magical fire into the hordeand opening demi plane portals hurrying people through. It was a fierce battle, with some of them dying in the effort, especially when the insect's master, some twisted woodland dweller consumed by dark magics, entered the town. The primary mage fell defending three young apprentices, who conjoined a spell empowered by rage to destroy the foe. The bugs fell, but the valley was burning, the smoke staining the land and killing trapped creatures.
At the far side of town, a farmer ran bloodied to his stable, the rest of his farm lost. With some luck, the creatures inside had cowered and survived, though the building had suffered much damage. He ran outside again when he saw one of the mages that stood alongside the primary, an elder woman who was clearly a colleague or perhaps an equal, and begged them to save the animals. She agreed and explained that she could take them with her, "and the shed too." if he wanted, smiling towards the man. His face of sheer relief and joy was something she would remember all her life.
He died then, simply exhausted and too damaged from the battle. She put the man to rest on his burning farm porch, then walked into the stable. She read from a scroll, and a large blue circle with many magical symbols appeared around the building. In a flash of light, the scroll evaporated, and the: building, mystic, and all the animals disappeared from the valley.
As the rest of the village burned, the blue light set off a chain reaction. Several other buildings were encircled in their own blue light and disappeared. The few that remained consumed the town in engulfed in flames, and the valley burned to ash.
The image fades once again to complete green and you're back in the ruined stables inside the mountain.
The masked spirit is gone.
Arbon looks around the room with awe as he sees the vision before him. Then blinks as it disappears as quickly as it came. He looks at the ring in his hand, with the shape of a ram encrusted with the smallest red gems for eyes that almost seem to glow with fiery brilliance. He looks to the others, "Did you all see that vision too? It seems this was not all meant to be here. Whoever they were, they only wished to escape a terrible fate, only to end up here." He hangs his head as he considers the poor souls, then sets his jaw as he looks at the others. "Shall we continue to search? Or do you wish to move on?"
Grahl stands nearby looking at the others as they interact with the owl. When it freezes once more Grahl is distrustfull of it and looks around avoiding its eye contact.
When looking back he sees others staring into the distance More magic.. he growls to himself more than anyone else. Grahl takes a few steps towards them but before reaching them they snap out of it.
Grahl no see vision. Magic curse you, Grahl see you stare into nothing. He looks around trying to spot lurking foes.
As he looks down he sees his axe glow giving off a little light even. With Grahl focussing on it the light slowly fades again mumbling to himself Gruumsh protect Grahl from evil magic.
He nods in agreement with himself.
"I think I saw what you saw," said Onyx slowly, touching a medallion hanging from his neck that hadn't been there before. "But, yes, I'm ready to move on if you are."
Sterling - V. Human Bard 3 (College of Art) - [Pic] - [Traits] - in Bards: Dragon Heist (w/ Mansion) - Jasper's [Pic] - Sterling's [Sigil]
Tooltips Post (2024 PHB updates) - incl. General Rules
>> New FOW threat & treasure tables: fow-advanced-threat-tables.pdf fow-advanced-treasure-table.pdf
Back at the final door, there is a sense of remembrance as you fly through a whirlwind of memories...
(Just a quick recap on everything that has happened so far)
Back in the desert, you walk the path into Ahm Hamu and see the Hunter's Cottage again. The black runes scrawled all over his walls clearly some kind of graffiti placed there by the same demons spraying it all about the mines. The silver windchimes must have come from the copious metal stores in the mine too, many of which have not had proper usage in some time. You can't see him or the dog, curiously, and you flash forward to the Laughing Tree. There's a quick burst of fear as you fly down the mine shaft coming to the ruined sleeping quarters and fighting the Maw Demon off. A little further and you remember picking up your new weapons and fighting the gas demon who blew the hunter down many flights of stairs.
You wonder what happened to the broken man, and are reminded of the sudden drop off into the deeper mine. Far down into the Dwarven laboratories and then finally into their hidden delves. Far below the world, you entered the devil's cube, and the Werewolf among you was exposed, to the bone. No vigil is held, there is no body to bury, and you moved on to face your first planar shift into the mirror world. You killed the guard dogs and lit the braziers. You walked beyond the hall of the dead, and summoned an Owl's body there, its restless spirit opting to join you for a time.
More mirrors in caves-you break them-possible fearing another planar shift. You are right to have done so, nothing beneficial awaited you there. As with the statue. Though you collected many fine objects from the demon's herald, you are faced with yet another mirrored world.
Entering your second shift, you are exposed to the cave birds who apparently tried to torture the Herald. You killed them, released their master's prisoner, then killed all of them too. You left their books and most of their legacies behind, perhaps fearing further distraction. Leaving the owl to rest, you were awarded with a sort of grace, be it the ability to see spiritual beings at a distance or disintegrate low health fiends on contact.
What a long strange trip its been.
And you're back at the massive golden handle. You open the door, and walk inside.
Inside, you find an island floating in a void of space. Upon the island lies a kind of castle, evidently housing something extremely powerful as you can feel its presence in the form of direct pressure on your temples and body in general. Its nauseating to stand in this aura, like smelling rotten food while sea sick, and you can't imagine anything good coming of the path ahead. From your little stone platform to the island is a rope bridge that looks sturdy enough to hold several elephants juggling each other. Its seems overkill, but upon looking over the edge, you're glad there's so many.
That is one hell of a drop.
(possible RP pause)
The crossing takes less than 15 minutes. Surely it could have been faster but running over a swaying bridge over an eternal pit is not how winners are made so you slowly creep over it and stand before the castle gates. They open for you, aware of your fate.
(possible RP pause)
Inside, there's an enormous staircase in the middle of the room that separates the view into quarters. The upper left corner probably leads to some kind of bed chamber. The right, possibly some kind of study or work office. To the left of the stairs and below the Bed Chambers floor, lies the kitchen and scullery. The final door to the bottom right is probably some matter of access or garden walk ways.
Fortunately, you don't need to contemplate the rooms or their contents long. A goat horned fiend jauntily walks down the stairs as if it has nothing to worry about. Its somewhat surprised that you are here, but doesn't betray this with anything more than a sharp intake of air once it raises its head to actually see you.
It remains at the center of the staircase on the second floor and begins to chant and cast something.
(What do you do?)
(OOC - at first pause)
Arbon looks over the side, "Best not get too close, my friends. I'm not sure if any of us can catch you if you fall in. That is most definitely not like that pit you all jumped into and had trouble finding your way out of."
(OOC - at second pause)
Arbon looks closely at the gates as they swing open. "What is with the gates in this place? They look immense, and yet move with such ease. I would love to know how they did it. I can think of a few places that would benefit from such brilliant craftsmanship."
(OOC - at finale)
Arbon watches curiously as the goat-man walks down the stairs, "Another goat," he mutters under his breath. But then, as the goat starts to cast something he calls out, "No! Another oracle performing some incantation. Stop so that we can talk!" But he readies a sacred flame to throw at the fiend should it not heed his words.
Arbon (and anyone else at finale)
The goat man pauses. It holds its hands down at its sides and stops chanting. Its legs are shaking, the creature is scared.
"Wh-Wh-Who are yyyyyooooou?" It bleats in a goat's voice with a twinge of humanity.
Taken a little aback that his words actually worked, Arbon stands shocked for a moment but then replies, "I am Arbon Warriver. And who might you be?"
( at first pause)
Before crossing the bridge Grahl holds his forearm in front of his nose once more. Bah.. more demon smell. He will then cross the bridge stopping somewhere along the way to look down while holding onto the ropes. Maybe demon pit he says still making a disgusted face from the smell but not having the free hands to cover his nose.
( at second pause)
Grahl listens to Arbon being impressed with the building. But Grahl merely thinks back at the the previous rooms with demons. Big gate hide many things. Once inside he will gaze around at the massive place and wonder what all this room is for. Could there be a creature so large or perhaps just many.
( finale )
With the goat beginning its chant Grahl raises his axehandle to hold with both hands and starts his movement towards the goat but is halted as Arbons words seem to stop it. Somewhat relaxing at the goatmans fearfull words he releases a hand from the handle and looks back a moment to the others.