D&D ADVENTURE! THE DOMAIN OF THE UNDER-DOG

THE CHASE TO THE CRYSTAL CITY, CHAPTER 3: THE DOMAIN OF THE UNDER-DOG

Welcome friends, to the next chapter of an adventure beyond time, space and reason! Discover new worlds and meet strange people (and that's just the players).

Having leapt from a goods-train like all good hoboes do, the party traveled through a magic portal to the once-grand temple of Pieter Onne-Dray, where they rapidly discovered a snake infestation of the very worse kind...
After doing their best to eradicate the evil in the heart of the temple, the heroes soon found they were outnumbered, and forced to surrender themselves to the mercy of the evil Misstress - and were rapidly consigned to the pit! Scattered, weaponless, and plunging to certain doom, how will our favourite adventurers get out of this one? All and more will be revealed in the next chapter of the epic tale of the Abbott's Cheese...



DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Sir Seu Antheus, lvl 6 Paladin of the Holy Order of the Lady of the Lake


Bufo the Black Hood, lvl 4 Neutral Evil Halfling Rogue


Robin, Lawful Good Human, lvl 5 Ranger


Rambulge, Neutral Good Human, lvl 4/4 Fighter/Sorcerer


Bari the White, Chaotic Good Human, lvl 6 Cleric of Jordann


Eggbert Einstein, Neutral Good Gnome, lvl 6 Illusionist



Air whistled past Eggbert's ears as he plummeted down into the pit. With little else to occupy his magnificent brain, he found himself calculating the force of the impact he would have on the ground below, based on his estimate of depth relative to the width of the pit and the structural limitations of the building materials and available construction methods (Magic? No,they fear it too much. Kobolds? Probably. Gigantic rock-tunneling worms? Not to be ruled out). Arriving at a satisfying conclusion, he happily determined that at the present time, having reached terminal velocity, there was no chance of surviving this fall. Then he realised he had forgot to include in his equations the variation in the gravitic pull of this planet, which, by his reckoning, was between 0.005-0.007% less than what he was accustomed to. 'Drat,' he thought to himself, 'now i'll have to start agai-'

________________________________

Bari felt the wind tickling him under his potato sack as he plunged through darkness, his only light coming from the pinprick above them, and the stave he held in his hand. With a strange feeling of detachment from his current circumstances, he examined the stave's triangular head, it's clean, straight edges, the odd inscription - 'ARIA'. He felt his mind reaching out and connecting with something (someone?) once again, only this time, there were no arrows to interrupt. The golden pyramid filled his vision, he felt himself being drawn inside, he felt-

He was inside.

The room was lush, and golden, and bright - it made him blink with the suddeness of it all. He was standing in a beautiful anteroom, and the rushing wind of his fall had been replaced with a light breeze that caressed his worn and weary body. He heard wind chimes in the background. All was serene.

"Oh, hi!"

A voice! It was high and a little nasal, with a slight accent that Bari couldn't quite pick. When Bari turned, he saw a man of slight build with close-cropped brown hair, a thin goatee, wearing a loose v-necked white singlet and white pants. They were really nice pants. Bari admired the pants.

"Welcome to my home. My name is Pieter Onne-Dray, perhaps you've heard of me?"

______________________


Robin could see Rambulge beneath him, his robes flapping as he fell deeper into this accursed pit. He willed himself to fall faster, to catch up to the spellsword so they could... so they could what? Die together? Maybe he could shield the man with his body so that one of them might live? But then what? Starve at the bottom of the pit, or worse, eat the bodies of the fallen and become something worse than men...? It seemed hopeless, no matter what they did.

Also, what was that awful smell?

_______________________

Rambulge farted continuously from the moment he was hurled into the pit. If any of the party had possessed infravision they would have seen him sprout a grotesque tail that fanned out behind him as he dropped through empty space.

_______________________


Eggbert was stuck. Very stuck. Something sticky (sticky, sticky, sticky) had stopped his fall, much to his relief (his equations were lost to time now) but in the process of saving him, he found himself unable to do much more than wriggle thanks to the tangles strands he was caught in. He lay on his back, suspended in mid-air, and stared at the distant pinprick of light that was all he could see. 'Well,' thought the gnome, 'I guess this is better than spikes at least.'
After a few minutes he heard the unmistakable sound of a baby's screaming coming closer at a rapid rate. The web (he was pretty sure by now that he was caught in a web) shuddered as something small hit it, followed by a massive tremor as something even larger landed. Straining his eyes in the gloom, Eggbert made out the figure of Duke struggling in his own section of web as he tried to reach the little girl, who was just about inside-out with fear. The hobo managed to pull her from the entanglement and gave her a grimy thumb to suck. Seconds later Rambulge landed too, followed by Robin, and the web zinged up and down like an overloaded trampoline ("What's a trampoline?").

"Oh..." Rambulge was heard to utter weakly, along with a wet farty sound. Robin grunted as the reality of the situation hit him - they had been spared the sudden death of the pit bottom, but at what cost? Were they now to be prey to whatever made this web?!

"If this web belongs to a spider," the ranger's quiet voice came from the darkness, "then it is the largest spider I have ever encountered. We need to get out of this mess now! Right now!"

With a pinging sound, one of the anchoring strands came loose from the wall, and the web started to sag and swing ever so slightly...

______________________

Seu was bound up and gagged in a dark room. Very dark. Pitch black in fact. His armour had been taken off him, the Yuan-Ti crudely hacking through the straps and buckles where they proved tricky to unfasten, and throwing the pieces in a corner. Since he had been placed in this room, noone had come to see him, and though he supposed it had only been a matter of minutes, time seemed to have abandoned him. Bari's aid prayer had worn off, leaving him tired and broken. What had happened to his friends? Were they alive, or had they died at the bottom of that dreaded pit? What of Yngwie?

Almost as if in answer to his question, he heard a hideous scream, muffled by walls, but still close. Was that Yngwie? Were they already torturing him for the answers they sought? Would he tell them the secret of the portal, and let this evil loose upon the universe...?

Seu willed the elf to stay strong. The screaming continued.
 

Asslessman

Member
Without his armour on, the paladin felt as naked. Well, he actually didn't have much on so he technically was close to being naked. With Bari's prayer gone, his whole body felt a mess so he tried to move every part of his body just to get sensations back. Toes were OK, as were his legs. His fingers seemed to respond and his arms too although with much pain. He then moved his left breast up and down, followed by the right one, and both seemed as good as possible even if a little bruised. Contracting his abdominal muscles, he made a series of waves with his belly, proof it was fine. A few facial contorsions after that, Seu settled on his table.
The scream he heard in distance reminded him he still had companions to look after and that his mission was still on. For now Seu cold do little more than pray... but wasn't prayer a paladin's strongest weapon after all"
A he close his eyes, Seu's lips started to whisper words of glory to the Lady of the Lake, begging her for her guidance and for her support in their cause... "...and please grant Yngwie your soft blessing to help him bear the pain for I am your devoted and lawful knight and will fight your foes and hold your banner in the grim darkness of whatever future's ahead of us....
 

Penddraig

Member
Robin was relieved.

Well as relived as you can be after being thrown into a deep, dark pit to your death and then landing in a web that probably belonged to a spider that was larger than any he had ever seen.

So, he was relieved.

Didn't mean the ranger was happy in their situation. "Quick," he called to his companions. "Keep wriggling and moving, if the web comes away from the wall then we might use it to get down."

Hi Captain. Can I have a quick clarification on what we still have with us. I know all of our weapons were taken but what about our other items?
 

weazil

Moderator
Bari blinked as he took in his new surroundings. How did one go about treating a potential god in their... pyramid staff house? Was Pieter actually a god, or not? What would Jordann think about all of this? He hoped she could see him now.

"Uh, hi," Bari said, beaming brightly. "Yeah, my friends and I, we've heard of you before. We were, uh, visiting your other place. Some kinda temple? It's a little dated now, though, with all the snakemen and whatnot..." he trailed off, unsure of what else to say.

"But this pad is great," he continued, waving expansively. "Much better than the temple. Uh, where exactly are we? And, while we're at it, am I actually here here, or am I still screaming through a black hole at hundred miles an hour and just think I'm here? I'm just asking because if we could do something about the whole black hole thing, that'd be real nice right now."

Bari grinned nervously. What did you say to a potential god?

"Nice pants, by the way. Real nice..."
 
As Eggbert fell, he felt strangely free from all normal cares. Even though he was falling under gravity, he felt that gravity was strangely absent. Hmm, interesting idea that. But then his ponderings were rudely interrupted by something soft and squidgy. It did not feel like hitting solid ground at high speed. Maybe this is what death is like, he thought. The afterlife is like being in a big spiders web in a big dark hole..
But then he heard his companions calling out, and realised that he was still very much attached to his mortal body. He heard Robin calling out to keep moving. So he wriggled about a bit.

"Can anyone see the ground? I cant see much at all down here."
 
All your weapons are gone, but you still have your other items. Apart from whatever food supplies, bedrolls, cutlery, etc you might have had, Robin has blinding powder and his armour ring, Rambulge has his 'Frank's Zapper' ring and manual of charisma, and Duke has his bag of lucky pebbles (you just never know). Also, Eggbert still has his spellbook in it's waterproof casing (did i mention he has one of those? Of course he does! ;) ).
 
Realising what it was that had broken their fall, Rambulge didn't need Robin to tell him to start wriggling but hearing the words out of the ranger's mouth, the spell sword put even more effort in- he wriggled like ten possessed men, farting wildly as he did.
 
Pieter regarded Bari with obvious interest. "You are in my realm now, mortal man - at least, what is left of my realm. It's small, but i like to think of it as 'cosy'. Cosy is good, right... what was your name again? Bari, right, yeah, cosy is... it's good."

The deity lapsed into an awkward silence as he looked about him at the various furnishings.

Bari said, "..;"

"So," interrupted Pieter, then, "oh, sorry, sorry, what were you saying?"

Bari repeated, "..;"

"Anyway," Pieter interrupted again, "you mentioned my temple?"

"Yeah... it belongs to the snakemen now," Bari explained apologetically. Pieter nodded distractedly.

"You know Barney... Bari, i meant, sorry - Bari, I've got a problem. I'm going to tell you something that might blow your mind a bit."

Pieter stopped and looked at Bari as if for the first time. "Hey man! Hey, woah... are those arrows? Damn! Come and sit down on my lush divan and take a weight off, come, come on. Sit. Lie down even."

Bari sat. He lay down gingerly on his side, trying to avoid jarring any of the arrows protruding from his body. He was actually relieved to get the weight off his traumatized leg, though a bit weirded out when Pieter started trying to lower grapes into his mouth from a dangling bunch.

"Eat them man, eat! Food of the gods!"

Bari took a grape in his mouth. It was juicy and delicious. It filled him with a wonderful warmth when he swallowed it, and his pain was immediately eased. The arrows disintegrated into fine powder with a wave of Pieter's hand, and the wounds closed over. Bari felt better than he had in a long, long time.

"How do you feel Billy? I've still got it, huh?" Pieter grinned widely as he surveyed his work. Bari felt awkward. "You mentioned you had something to tell me?" the cleric asked.

"Yeah, yeah, right, look, see, the thing is..." Pieter paused. "The way it works is... gods are powerful. Really powerful. But they need belief in order to be... relevant. People have to care, otherwise... well, what do we do? Not much... not much. I've been in here a long time Benny. And there's maybe one person left out there who still believes. She's keeping me going. But she wont be around forever. You need to get me out of here man!"

Pieter's smile was still there, but there was a hint of desperation too. "I need you to take this stave to the high clerist. I dont know where she is but she must be alive still, otherwise... well, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Can you do that for me Harry?"


_________________________________________

Seu closed his eyes and opened them again. It made no difference at all. The darkness was absolute. He prayed to the Lady for guidance in this darkest of hours, the words a whisper on his lips. He blinked his eyes. Darkness, and darkness. The screaming had stopped, and the silence was most worse. Darkness, and darkness.

I need to help my friends... or avenge them.

Darkness.

Darkness.

Light.

Seu was standing on the edge of a frozen lake. He was naked, and the cold was bitter. Before him stood a man, heavily armoured, his visor closed. Frost rimed the metal of his pauldrons and caked his shield. He turned to look at the paladin, and though his eyes were not visible within his great helm, Seu could feel his scorn.

"Do you call yourself a knight?" the figure said. "Where is your armour, where is your shield, where is your blade?".

Seu wanted to answer but he was frozen, body and soul.

"Pathetic." The figure stepped forwards and struck Seu across the face with his gauntleted hand.

Seu blinked. He was back in the room, bound and gagged. Hisston stood before him and slapped him again.

"Ah, i see you are awake now. Good. Drink this."

The snakeman forced sickly brown liquid down the paladin's throat. It tasted awful, but it warmed his body and eased his pain.

"You are in bad shape, and i need you nice and healthy... can't have you dying on me before the...experiments begin."

Hisston leaned in close and sneered.

"I'm going to discover your secrets paladin. I want to know all about you. You have a power within you that defies explanation. Your very aura is anathema to me. By the time I'm done you will beg me for death but I will not grant it to you. I will peel you apart, piece by piece, until all is revealed. I'm going to enjoy this immensely... but for now, you need to rest. Tomorrow we begin."

Hisston walked towards the door, turning briefly to smile back at the paladin with his horrible toothy mouth. "Don't go anywhere now," he sneered. Then the door closed, and the darkness returned.

Darkness.

Darkness.

__________________________________

The companions in the pit struggled to win free from the sticky strands of spiderweb. Rambulge was flailing about so hard that it looked like each of his limbs might fly off in a different direction. His efforts only made him more entangled, but the motion was having it's effect - one by one the supporting strands were giving way to their combined weight.

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Robin began to notice something odd about the way the web had been constructed. Webs come in all manner of styles, from the elegant constructions of orb weavers to the messy work of black widows, but this one did not look altogether natural. The strands stretched from wall to wall in a criss-cross pattern, with very little interconnectivity. Spiders rely on vibrations carried across the web from all areas... this web didn't seem to make sense. What could it mean?

With another jolt, Robin dropped a few feet into some fresh strands. If only they knew how far they were from the bottom...
 

weazil

Moderator
Bari rubbed his leg and shoulder where the arrows had been. "Wooo!" he chirped. "Man! You still got it, alright!" Bari sat upright, fully energised by the godly grapes he'd just been offered. He patted the divan. "This is one nice piece of furniture, man. I am totally digging this pad!"

Pieter grinned. "It's good, isn't it? Got it four centuries interest free in a summer sale down at Olympus. Before all this happened, anyway."

Bari nodded. "Yeah. This. So, tell me about this high clerist. What's her name? What does she look like?" Also, if you don't mind my asking, what happened to the other, y'know - followers?"
 
Pieter shrugged his shoulders. Then he did it again, angrily.
"I don't know man, i don't know! I was at this killer party, it was... it was a killer party. Do you know what it takes to intoxicate a godly being? Do you KNOW? Of course you don't. I woke up after a measly 100 years and what happens? My girlfriend left me, my temple is filled with snakes, and my followers are all gone. Just... gone. They never made it here to my realm and it's all my fault.
I need to get back on track, gotta get my head straight, but it's hard. I can't remember things, my powers are all but gone... the high clerist's name is... it was... Maggie? Margie? Maude? Dammit... she'd be old now, for a human. Very old. It's a miracle she's even alive. You have to find her Wally, or I'll become like the other Lost gods, just a remnant on a broken stone wall. Don't let that happen okay? I... I'll give you some sweet pants! Just like these! Do you want my pants?"
 

Asslessman

Member
Darkness... imprisoning me... All that I see... Absolute horror... I cannot live... I cannot die... Trapped in myself... Body my holding cell...

Seu considered the words of the frosted knight "Where is your armour, where is your shield, where is your blade?", those words... those very words... he had heard them from his master at arms at the temple, he had heard them from his father as they were training in the courtyard of Wyrmrock Castle... his mind knew the answer but his heart seemed to forget it everytime.

Where is your armour, where is your shield, where is your blade?

He knew what answer the frosted knight wanted but would he give him with his mind or heart ?

With his renewed vigor, Seu tried to see if he could unbound himself from that table.

And there I was thinking gods were wise and deep and all and now I see it's after all just a matter of number of followers like any other facebooking/blogging/tweeting douche... How shallow.
Shame on you Pieter One-dray.

Funny though to look at those reality TV celebs as modern gods...

Yeah OK... 'nuff 2 cent philosophy, time to get serious before Seu gets probed.
 

Penddraig

Member
Robin paused to look around himself. Trying to focus on the make-up of the web and thinking how he knew spiders had made their webs in the forests where he grew up. "Woah!" He jumped as he slipped down a bit further, looking down he couldn't see the bottom.

Looking around the situation they were in Robin tried to think - when they thrown in here the Yuan-Ti clearly thought they were falling to their death. Did they not know this web was here? If that was the case then who had placed it here? Then something struck him, "Bufo!" Robin yelled out for the Halfling. "Bufo are you here? Everyone stop moving for a minute. Rambulge, Eggbert, have you got any spells left that could give some light for either where we are or how much further there is to fall? Bari, have you got spells left that could deal with your injuries? Bari? Bari..?"

cheers captain for the update on the equipment.
 
"S-sorry-pfft-Robin-pfft" said a madly wriggling, farting Rambulge- " I-pfft-don't-pffft"

Rambulge thought of the chicken nugget he had seen and wriggled with renewed vigour.
 

weazil

Moderator
"Okay, man," Bari said, holding his hands up. "It's okay. We've all had, uh, centuries like that."

He went quiet. The two looked around awkwardly, not really looking at each other, but equally not able to really look anywhere else. He was beginning to piece together what might have happened that had made Jordann so upset with Pieter. Should he mention he was an acolyte of hers? What he needed was a cleansing ritual and to consult her, but circumstances had made that difficult.

"It'll be hard if I don't know anything about her, but man, I'll sure try. What did you want me to do when I find her? The, uh, High Clerist, that is. Not your girlfriend...unless?"

Bari trailed off, watching Pieter closely.
 
Sorry it was a while between posts, my son's 1st birthday party preparations, celebrations and recovery period took a bit out of us ;) also i've been a bit under the weather, blah blah excuse excuse.

Also, happy birthday to JB! Sorry I couldn't give you a better gift than misery and torture...



Rambulge thrashed about like three men tied together in a mosh-pit, two of whom are looking for one shoe and one of whom is looking for his contact lens inside a third shoe, which is attached to one of the previous two men. It was complicated. Also, smelly. Robin grunted as he tried to free his tangled limbs from the cloying strands. Occasionally there was a ping and a plop as a rock was knocked loose when another strand of web came away from the wall, and the group dropped down another foot or two. The baby began to whinge again. Robin's cries for Bufo elicited no response, even though his voice echoed up and down the pit. It seemed like a hopeless struggle to Robin - and all the effort they made could still be bringing them close to a spiky death.

Wait... the rock made a plop?

______________________________________________

Pieter ignored the talk of girlfriends and looked at Bari with a renewed urgency. "I have to tell you, man, I don't really know what you can do once you find the High Clerist. I just assume you give her the stave and... something. Something might happen? I don't know! Maybe she knows? Yeah! That's it! She'll know i'm here when you give her the staff, just like you knew. How DID you know I was here anyway? Could you feel me?"

Pieter stopped, a little breathless.

"I have to send you back now. My juice is running a little low..." the background billowed slightly as if in response. Nothing is real, thought Bari, then, almost unbidden, another thought popped into his head.

All reality is ambiguous.

"What does that mean?" asked Bari, aloud, then wished he hadn't when he saw Pieter looking at him strangely.

"Right... anyway," said Pieter, "before you go, i'm going to try and help you out a little. Gods have many powers, and precognition is one of them. I'm going to try and take a peek into the future and see if I can see something that might help m... us. Hang on for a second...this is going to take a bit out of me... hurrrrrgh!"

The room faded away. Pieter faded away. All that remained was a wispy white form and a pair of glowing white eyes. Bari was startled to find himself floating in nothingness. There was an odd humming noise in the air and it took Bari a second to realise it was Pieter, humming.

"Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmyummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... oh.... oh ho.... oh yeah, hahah, that's a good one... oh they'll never see that one coming, hahaha!"

Bari was getting a bit impatient. "Sooo, see anything useful?"

Pieter snapped back into vision. "Hey!" he said brightly, "what's up Larry?"

"It's Ba... oh forget it. What did you see?"

"See where?"

"You were looking into the future to see if you could see something that could help us out?" Bari was losing patience with this so-called deity.

"Oh... OH! Oh. Erm... you know how it is when you have this really vivid dream, and the details are so clear, and then when you try and tell someone about it, you can't... remember?"

Bari shook his head.

"I'm going to send you back now..."

"Yeah, that'd be a good idea."

"Stand by. Good luck Eugene."

"That doesn't even sooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH WAIT WAIT THE PIT THE PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH!!"


___________________________________________


Seu struggled against his bonds so hard his wrists tore and bled, and the ropes grew slick and slippery with his blood, but the snakeman knew his stuff - the knots held, and the paladin remained trapped. He slumped, exhausted, and closed his eyes, willing himself to rest, to maybe see another vision, to see the Lady... darkness hung heavily over him.

Suddenly there was light again, but it was not the ice lake, or the glory of the Lady, it was just Hisston opening the door again. He looked cheerful.

"Good morning paladin! I ssee you've had a resstful night?"

Could it really be morning already? Had he been tied down for that long? Time was impossible to measure in his cell...

"Today we sshall ssee what we can learn about your holy aura from ssamples of your blood. Doess the effect imbue every fibre of your being? Can it be taken, disstilled...? We sshall ssee... we sshall ssee..."

Hisston slid a long knife out of a sheath and plunged it into Seu's side. His blood flowed freely and the snakeman collected the hot splashes into a phial held in another hand. Seu winced, but did not cry out. When the phial was filled, he took it away and watched with glittering eyes as the wound continued to bleed. "How doess it feel paladin...? Doess your lady give you ssuccour even now, or hass sshe abandoned you in thiss place, left you to die?"

Hisston stood back, chuckling, his hideous face leering in the shadows of the room.

Seu's HP 11/55


____________________________________________


Robin was filled with a newfound hope. The rock had made a 'plop' sound, he'd heard it! Even over the sound of Rambulge's raging arsehole. Water meant hope - a soft landing, an underwater river, a way out - there was hope. but how would they get down there? The answer was... approaching. Rapidly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The chocolate meteor struck the already weakened webs and tore through them like a battering ram. The whole tangled mess wrenched free from the left side of the wall and collapsed downwards, sending the companions tumbling down deeper into the pit. Fortunately, they didn't have far to go. With a big sploosh, they landed in some sort of pool and sank beneath the surface, all legs and arms and webs... it was cold, and very, very dark.

As Bari sank downwards, he thought about the last thing that Pieter Onne-Dray had said to him - as he had been zapped back to reality, the fallen god's voice had said one thing:

Always back the underdog.

Always back the underdog.

'More mysteries,' thought the cleric, and then, 'why is this water so tangy?'
 

Asslessman

Member
The pain of the blade was intense but Seu was determined to keep it for himself, He did not want the Snekman to get the pleasure of tasting his suffering.

" How could such a pathetic creature as yourslef understand anything about this power? Cut me to bits all you like, you will find this power in every tiny little bit, no matter how small you cut them. Oh I've seen the likes of you before, trying to bleed, leech and dissecate to understand and find anwswers you can apprehand even when they're right under your very nose, ...or tongue, ...or whatever. This power you're talking about, it is the Lady who lends it to those who choose a life of justice and service. And all it requires is faith... The faith is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it and... my sister has it.
You think our hearts are a vital organ because of the blood it pumps into our body ? Ridiculous... what it drives through my veins is the sense of JUSTICE AND HONOUR ! Bleed me dry HIsston but you cannot take that out of me, cut me into the smallest particles you can and yet you won't have lessened one bit of Her Power for it is hers to begin with.
If you really want to understand those things, you'll have to think outside of the box and see if that heart of yours is here just to pump that filthy Ichor through your veins or if it can send some sense into the cold cadaver that is your soul...
For every battle I fight for the Lady, I know I have brothers and sisters in my back ready to tend my wounds or take my place should I fall... in your fight for evil, you know you only have daggers in your back, spying every step you take to stab you after each victory...

Now go and look into those phials and see if you can find some power in them, see if Faith can be captured in glass. Look into my blood all you want, the answer will still be right in your chest beating every second to say HOW WRONG YOU ARE !

WHAT DOES YOU HEART BEAT FOR HISSTON !

DOOM AND FAILURE? MINE BEATS FOR JUSTICE AND THE LADY"

His breath heavy but with a smile upon his face, Seu let his head fall back on the table and he started to whisper the "rhyme of the maiden fair", the very first poem about the Lady his father had taught him in his young age.

Many Thanks James, Any update to this story is a nice present really !, I would have been sad not to get anything ;)

Oh and I have to say that the Pieter One-dray VS Bari scene reminded of of Corum's scene with Shool, but maybe that was intentionnal ;)
 
Eggbert, fighting against the clinging strands of web, tried to swim to the surface.
Why is this water so tangy, he wondered?
 

weazil

Moderator
Bari floated to the surface, flicking his hair as he broke the water. "Can this day get any worse?" he asked the darkness, trying to find any source of light nearby. He raised the staff as best he could whilst kicking with his legs, trying to use its glow to illuminate the area.

His heart dropped as he heard the sound of other splashing. "Guys? Guys! Is that you?"

Bari will try to use the light from the staff to get any perspective of where they are. Assuming he can see any sort of ledge or route out, he'll make for that.
 
Eggbert found the strands of web loosening their grip in the tangy water as he kicked his way to the surface. As his head emerged, he briefly pondered whether the source of the odd taste in the water might be acid based, possibly some underwater fissure causing a chemical reaction with the water. The gnome was interrupted by Bari bursting out of the water and flicking his hair like a model in an expensive shampoo commercial ("what's shampoo?"), if said shampoo were a brown, sticky liquid that had lots of little bits in it. The cleric was holding aloft the High Clerist's stave, and as Eggbert watched, the glow from the staff seemed to grow brighter (or were his eyes adjusting to the gloom?). In the light it shed, Duke the Hobo was visible, clutching at a handful of soggy web to keep himself and the little girl he had miraculously held onto this whole time above water. Both were coated in the brown liquid, the child rubbing it's eyes and blubbering quietly. She looked exhausted. They all did for that matter.

Casting his gaze hastily around the circumference of the pit, Bari made what appeared to be an area of blackness deeper than the rest of the wall - could it be a ledge, or better yet, a tunnel leading out...?

The cleric sploshed his way over, noting that his feet could actually touch the bottom in parts - the bottomless pit had a bottom! And one more time: bottom. Reaching the edge of the ledge, Bari placed the stave up there, then heavingly, soggily pulled himself up, his armoured arms scraping and squeaking against the stonework. He was feeling pretty darn energetic after his recent healing, and having partaken of godly grapes. He stood at the entrance to a narrow, dim tunnel, little more than a natural fissure. The light of the stave revealed little that could tell him what might lie beyond...
 
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