37.1 In a world we must defend

[Ebiris]

[16:59] <@Janson> Gathering up the ever faithful Trucy and the 'reliable if you just need to pay someone for some healing' Melinda, Henrietta charters a boat and sets off for the cove previously found by her fellows early one morning. It's the work of most of the day to sail East of the city along the craggy shore, but with the able work of Trucy and Melinda you get there well before dinnertime and carefully squeeze into the small cave dock. Some light filters in to see by here, but proceeding any further into the caves would require a light source. "Looks like any old smuggler's cove so far," Melinda notes, standing as Trucy moors the boat. She has her usual nautical cap on over her twintailed blonde hair, silver sextant hanging from her neck and a long heavy black coat worn. At her hip is an ornate looking notched cutlass.
[17:03] <@Henrietta> As they need light, Henrietta dispenses with it. She briefly considers enchanting her hat, but dismisses the idea as tacky. An incantation later, her ring glows brightly enough to show the way ahead.
[17:03] <@Henrietta> She finds herself terribly curious whether the cutlass at Melinda's hip is purely decorative or an actual weapon for the priestess, but cannot bring herself to ask the question. Instead, Henrietta nods, stepping onto the dock. "So far. It is supposed to be, well, quite terrifying further inside, I was told."
[17:05] <@Janson> "Well Davey Jones is no stranger to terror, I'll tell ye that," Melinda chirps brightly, hauling herself up onto the dock. Trucy clambers up a bit more hesitantly.
[17:05] <@Janson> "It's just scary, though, right? They can't actually hurt us?" the younger girl asks hopefully, looking down towards a charred set of doors at the end of the tunnel away from the short pier, hanging open invitingly.
[17:07] <@Henrietta> "Well, I must admit, I do not recall ever crossing paths with a ghost..." Henrietta responds, wary herself.
[17:09] <@Janson> "Heh, I still remember the first time I met you, coming in screaming and bawling about the undead things biting ye," Melinda chuckles pleasantly to herself, starting to walk sedately towards the doors ahead while Trucy lingers close to Henrietta, giving the latter a curious look at Melinda's tale.
[17:11] <@Henrietta> "A zombie bit me!" Henrietta exclaims. "I had to fight them off at every turn, carrying Miranda along! And-- and-- I had to stay there, trapped underground, and there were more of them, and then I had to swim underwater for so long I couldn't breathe anymore! And I still needed to rescue everyone and row back and zombie bites are unsanitory, you know! We have to treat them right away, and it
[17:11] <@Henrietta> was over a day already!"
[17:12] <@Janson> Trucy winces at Henrietta's loudly earnest protest while Melinda just laughs. "Well don't you fret, any drowned zombies show their heads here they'll know better than to cross one o' Davey Jones' lot."
[17:15] <@Henrietta> In retrospect, it was very good that Trucy didn't come with them that time, especially as Henrietta would probably have tried to keep her out of danger and by the trapdoor. Would she have been snuck upon and killed, like their turncoat guide? "I, I'll have you know I learned a spell to deal with zombies after that terrible ordeal," Henrietta says primly to Melinda, trying to calm herself down.
[17:16] <@Janson> "What spell's that?" Melinda asks, stopping at the edge of Henrietta's light and waiting for the redhead to muster her courage. "The one you were talking about that makes people trip up?" she continues with an impish grin on her face.
[17:18] * @Henrietta rises up to the challenge, striding forward with hardly a skip in her step. "I-- I'm still working on that one!" she protests quickly. "I just learned a spell that dispels their corporeal forms, and another to conjure up a rose of force to strike at them from a greater distance. If I had to, for some reason, not because I was afraid to come near them or anything."
[17:20] <@Janson> With light to lead the way, you can see ahead into the next room, and Melinda wastes no time in entering. The scuffed stone walls of this chamber have been plastered over and then decorated with lurid murals of monstrous unnatural creatures. Simple wooden doors lead to the north, south, and back west the way you came, each bearing a painting of beatific childish figure haloed in light seemingly at odds with the surrounding decor. A sizable double door stands on the east wall, appearing in the mural as a massive set of double doors opening into the imposing walls of a great fortress. Two huge scythe-armed monstrosities decorate these large doors.
[17:20] <@Janson> Each door is wide open, and two heavily decomposed corpses lie close to double doors opposite where you came in, wearing tattered charcoal rags that might once have been scholarly robes. Another figure in similar attire lies at the centre of the room, limbs splayed and laying on his or her back. Possibly a her given the length of hair but the state of decomposition makes it hard to tell. "At least you're prepared if anything here tries to get rough with us. Which way do we go?"
[17:24] <@Henrietta> "Prepared. Certainly." Henrietta almost blushes as she quietly casts Mage Armor on herself, before offering the same to Trucy and Melinda as if she had always meant to do that here. "We should proceed ahead for now, and start with the eastern door," she declares afterwards.
[17:26] <@Janson> Melinda demurs, patting her coat meaningfully, but Trucy quite happily accepts Henrietta's magic. The blonde priestess skips over the corpses on her way to the doors ahead, "That lot look like they'll be needing the special burials if what we've heard is true," she comments darkly. But just as she's about to step through the doorway...
[17:26] <@Janson> OOC: will saves all
[17:27] <@Janson> roll 1d20+1 Trucy
[17:27] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+1 Trucy and gets 16." [1d20=15]
[17:27] <@Janson> roll 1d20+8 Melinda
[17:27] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+8 Melinda and gets 24." [1d20=16]
[17:27] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+6
[17:27] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+6 and gets 15." [1d20=9]
[17:29] <@Janson> Suddenly the monstrous figures on the murals all around the room come to life! Writhing unnaturally and without the merest sound, they extend tentacles and freakishly long limbs *outside* the mural, reaching towards everyone present in the room! So fast you could easily write it off as a trick of the light, the images whip their appendages towards you - claws grazing Henrietta's shoulder, pincers snagging Melinda's waist, tentacles whipping Trucy's legs... before they're gone and the murals are quiet. But a deathly painful chill seeps through each of you were you felt the appendages touch.
[17:29] <@Janson> roll 1d10 cold damage
[17:29] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d10 cold damage and gets 10." [1d10=10]
[17:30] <@Henrietta> "An undead thing bit me again!" Henrietta exclaims, latching onto Melinda.
[17:34] <@Janson> "What was that?!" Melinda shivers and wraps her arms around herself, consequently being wrapped around by Henrietta. Trucy shows little shame in joining in, the three females clustered close together. It's then that the blonde recovers herself, "Ack! Gerrof!" she protests, pushing Henrietta and Trucy away. "Yer gonna need to pay twice as much to fill Davey Jones' treasure chest now, y'know," her perky voice drops into an ominous leer, reaching out to Trucy who flinches! However after being touched by Melinda's sickly mist covered hand she brightens. "Hey, I feel warmer!"
[17:34] <@Janson> roll 1d8+5 cure light wounds
[17:34] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d8+5 cure light wounds and gets 10." [1d8=5]
[17:36] <@Henrietta> Shivering, Henrietta nods. "It... it was the contract, and it is only right...." she says, casting wary looks at the murals.
[17:37] <@Janson> "Sad thing to say is, that was my only healing spell," Melinda admits afterwards. "You two still want to continue on?" she looks through to the next room. "This feels like a mighty fierce haunting..." The murals remain as odious and unmoving as when you first entered.
[17:39] <@Henrietta> "Can you help the children?" Henrietta asks her back. "If the answer is yes, we have to... go on." She waits on an answer, but should it be a positive one, Henrietta would cross the doorway and proceed.
[17:42] <@Janson> "If we get the little ones out to sea, I can send them on to Davey Jones' locker, sure enough," Melinda nods, following Henrietta.
[17:42] <@Janson> Trucy follows with trepidation herself, asking, "Do I get double pay, too?" This room is plainer than the one preceding it, though you have to step over another robed corpse coming in, the plastered walls bare of decoration other than a strange and somewhat distorted wavy pattern at chest height running around its circumference. A pair of doors lie to both the North and the South, spaced equally along its length and facing each other, while another double door lies ahead, every single one hanging open.
[17:42] <@Janson> OOC: perception checks
[17:42] <@Janson> roll 1d20+4 Melinda
[17:42] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+4 Melinda and gets 15." [1d20=11]
[17:42] <@Janson> roll 1d20+5 Trucy
[17:42] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+5 Trucy and gets 13." [1d20=8]
[17:42] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+2
[17:42] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+2 and gets 18." [1d20=16]
[17:43] <@Janson> As Henrietta enters this hallway, she can faintly hear the sound of soft child-like sobbing, it sounds as if it's coming from inside the walls...
[17:44] <@Henrietta> "Certainly," Henrietta tells Trucy. She starts saying something else, before freezing. "The walls are crying," she tells Melinda tersely. "Do you... need to do something about that?"
[17:49] <@Janson> Any celebration on Trucy's part is cut short by that next comment. "That's a manifestation of the haunting, same as the cold," Melinda says, looking around. "S'not like a ghost or wight I can parley with, though. Just mad pain an'... shit!" she exclaims as the crying rises up into a shriek of pure undiluted agony! As that sound breaks across your ears, the walls suddenly become drenched with rivers of thick steaming red blood and viscera, pouring down and then rushing across the floor in a crimson deluge! Raising up her arms, Melinda conjures forth a wave of briny green sea-water that rushes forth against the blood, but that only forestalls it from one direction, the rest continuing on to surround you and break over your legs!
[17:49] <@Janson> OOC: fort saves
[17:49] <@Janson> roll 1d20+7 Melinda
[17:49] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+7 Melinda and gets 14." [1d20=7]
[17:49] <@Janson> roll 1d20+1 Trucy
[17:49] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+1 Trucy and gets 5." [1d20=4]
[17:49] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+4
[17:49] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+4 and gets 7." [1d20=3]
[17:49] <@Janson> roll 1d4 fire damage for all
[17:50] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d4 fire damage for all and gets 4." [1d4=4]
[17:50] <@Janson> roll 1d6 con damage for Henrietta and Trucy
[17:50] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d6 con damage for Henrietta and Trucy and gets 4." [1d6=4]
[17:52] <@Janson> While Melinda's conjured wave manages to cool a lot of the blood and dilute it of its foulness, it still scalds your ankles and sickens both Henrietta and Trucy considerably! Both water and blood vanish away as if never there afterwards, although foulness continues to cling to everyone's legs under the knees.
[17:54] * @Henrietta clamps her hand over her mouth in horror, shocked into inaction.
[17:55] <@Janson> "Just like old times," Melinda mutters under her breath, before giving Henrietta and Trucy an appraising look. "You seem to need this more... yer debt to Davey Jones grows every day," she intones ominously, a briny fog manifesting around her hand. "Oh, Devil o' the deep blue sea, show a bit o' mercy on this land-lubber's sea-sick!" she then reaches over to press her palm on Henrietta's forehead, a soothing sensation felt immediately.
[17:56] <@Janson> roll 1d4 lesser restoration
[17:56] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d4 lesser restoration and gets 4." [1d4=4]
[17:56] <@Janson> "This is horrible!" Trucy whines, kicking her legs as if to shake the ichor off them. "Don't they know we're here to help them?"
[17:58] <@Henrietta> "It... it has to be close, from what Lucie was saying," Henrietta speaks, as if trying to convince herself. "Really close. Then we will help them. We are almost there."
[18:00] <@Janson> "Lass, the dead don't understand any o' that. Far as they can tell we're demons come to torment them, or rogues come to steal whatever they might've got left," Miranda tells Trucy patiently. "So's anyway, which way to go now?"
[18:02] <@Henrietta> "North," Henrietta says, barely avoiding making it a question. She has to keep appearances, at least before Trucy.
[18:02] <@Janson> Entering through the North doors you find yourself in a dormitory or barracks of sort, filthy mattresses lined up against the walls and down the centre of the room, a foul overclogged communal latrine at the far end... and over a dozen tiny corpses, small children in filthy rags, their emaciated near skeletal forms laying pathetically throughout the chamber. Desperate scratch marks and pitted dents cover both doors on this side, but clearly to no avail in their last efforts to escape...
[18:04] <@Henrietta> "Please do something for them," Henrietta somehow manages to ask Melinda, her face white. It is one thing to hear of this, but to actually be there....
[18:04] <@Janson> Trucy gasps and covers her mouth, while Melinda spits on the ground, a foul look on her face. "S'better than a slave ship, but not by much."
[18:04] <@Janson> OOC: perception checks
[18:04] <@Janson> roll 1d20+5 Trucy
[18:04] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+5 Trucy and gets 9." [1d20=4]
[18:04] <@Janson> roll 1d20+4 Melinda
[18:04] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+4 Melinda and gets 22." [1d20=18]
[18:04] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+2
[18:04] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+2 and gets 22." [1d20=20]
[18:05] <@Janson> The corpses are long decomposed, the smell primarily one of dust and age rather than blood and flesh. But another smell begins to manifest, something cloyingly sweet... like rotten food? "Need to get them out to see, we'll have to put them on the boat," Melinda says, though she pauses and wrinkles her nose. "Smell that?"
[18:06] * @Henrietta grimaces herself. "It is not very pleasant."
[18:08] <@Janson> "Yeah, but I'm starting to feel..." Melinda's hand goes to her stomach while Trucy's face scrunches up. Moans begin to reverbate throughout the room, anguished and hungry... so hungry!
[18:08] <@Janson> OOC: fort saves all
[18:08] <@Janson> roll 1d20-1 Trucy
[18:08] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20-1 Trucy and gets 17." [1d20=18]
[18:08] <@Janson> roll 1d20+7 Melinda
[18:08] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+7 Melinda and gets 15." [1d20=8]
[18:08] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+4
[18:08] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+4 and gets 9." [1d20=5]
[18:09] <@Janson> roll 1d8 strength damage and you're all exhausted
[18:09] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d8 strength damage and you're all exhausted and gets 2." [1d8=2]
[18:10] <@Henrietta> "We just... have to bring them back? Back to the boat?" Henrietta asks, keeping her hand off the hilt of her flail by sheer force of will.
[18:11] <@Janson> Trucy all but collapses while Melinda doubles over clutching her stomach. "Davey's spite! I've never felt so hungry! Urgh... damn, either of you's got any food? Think I left my lunch on the boat..." Henrietta too feels a gaping emptiness in her stomach, a pitiless gnawing need for sustenance.
[18:13] <@Henrietta> Is that hunger? She never really felt it, since she has never been without money or caught unprepared. Even now, her pack holds rations, and Henrietta sets it down to retrieve them.
[18:15] <@Janson> Henrietta finds her rations alright... but they're now pitted and fouled with rot and decay, as if they'd been left to sit in a damp dark hole for a month. Melinda only takes one look and wrinkles her nose, "Hope they weren't like that when you packed them, but Davey Jones'll provide." Waving her mist-wreathed hand over the rations, they're restored to freshness at a stroke!
[18:16] <@Henrietta> "I always keep them fresh," Henrietta says, though she lacks the energy to be defensive about it. Nodding at Melinda in thanks, she controls her own hunger long enough to return the favor and hand one ration to her. A second goes to Trucy, and she tears into the third, leaving but one remaining.
[18:20] <@Janson> The rations are devoured in short order, taking the edge off everyone's hunger, but you all still feel exhausted and weakened. "Urgh... there's something I can do for this, at least for one of us. Here," Melinda focuses on Henrietta. "Away from storm, away from land, the calm sea soothes all ails," she intones, clingy salty mist wreathing the redhead briefly before fading away and taking much of her fatigue with it.
[18:20] <@Janson> OOC: just fatigued now, H-chan
[18:22] * @Henrietta manages a smile for Melinda, despite the situation. "Thank you," she says, before tearing her eyes away from the priestess and forcing herself to look at the barracks anew. "What should I do now? This is all about you."
[18:23] <@Janson> "Get them on the boat, first. Be a couple'a trips, but at least they don't look heavy," Melinda grimaces as she examines the tiny skelatal corpses. "Be gentle about it, don't want to bash them around or drop them."
[18:24] <@Henrietta> "Of course," Henrietta agrees. She recasts the light upon her ring, and then gently picks the nearest corpse of what must have been a young boy.
[18:25] <@Janson> Trucy and Melinda also get a body each, and the trip back to your boat is slow yet without incident. Several more are repeated until the dormitory is emptied of its former occupants. "That everyone, or anywhere else we should check?" Melinda asks, sitting down on the dock and breathing heavily with exertion.
[18:27] <@Henrietta> "I think... Rudy mentioned a corridor past a dining hall, and a few cells. Maybe four?" Next time, she will ask him to draw a map and bring it along, Henrietta swears to herself. She never counted on being disoriented so much by the haunting. "Can we help them in turns, that is, now and tomorrow, or do we have to bring them all together first?"
[18:28] <@Janson> "Better to do it all at once," Melinda pants. "Rather not stick around here overlong, and the haunting ain't gonna go away. We go back in tomorrow we'll face all the same tricks that's already hit us, plus whatever new terror's further on."
[18:32] <@Henrietta> "Alright," Henrietta responds. "There are a lot of... disturbing chambers. But I am fairly certain my friends only mentioned one more place where the children still were. Instead of heading north, we should go east again at that point. And... another east, I think."
[18:35] <@Janson> "Right," Melinda takes a deep breath and hauls herself to he feet, Trucy sighing miserably as she starts moving herself. Past the main hall you do indeed find yourselves in a dining room. It's wide, and would seem spacious if not for the low ceiling that lends an oppressive weight above your heads. It is mostly dominated by two long tables with benches on either side running along its length, the tables slightly askew and one of the benches tipped over under its parent. Clay shards and wood splinters lie scattered all across the room, a few larger fragments hinting they might have been tableware once upon a time.. A single door to the North lies ajar, while another door on the East wall at its South corner is wide open and half off its hinges. Two more robed figures lie dead here, both between the tables.
[18:37] <@Henrietta> "I... believe they were assaulted by the cutlery, here," Henrietta says uneasily, peering inside. "Maybe we can use the doors for cover if that happens to us as well?"
[18:38] <@Janson> "Not much cutlery left," Trucy notes, "But I'm all for running if any of it starts flying around." Nonetheless she pointedly doesn't take the lead.
[18:39] * @Henrietta decides to use Mage Hand to move the largest fragment within the room she can manipulate and see if that triggers anything.
[18:40] <@Janson> A spoonhead levitates itself up at Henrietta's bidding. Since both her companions saw her cast a spell there's no particular outcry at this.
[18:41] <@Henrietta> "Please work," Henrietta says hopefully, and then makes it for the eastern door!
[18:42] <@Janson> OOC: sending the spoonhead there or going yourself?
[18:42] <@Henrietta> OOC: First, sending it. If it doesn't do anything, I'll follow it.
[18:44] <@Janson> The spoonhead floats around merrily. In short order Henrietta follows it, along with the other two ladies. But as they're halfway through the room, the tables and benches begin to shudder and vibrate alarmingly!
[18:48] <@Henrietta> There is nothing they can do but hope they make it for the eastern door in time and take cover!
[18:49] <@Janson> OOC: roll init, remember penalties for fatigue
[18:49] <@Janson> roll 1d20+1 Trucy
[18:49] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+1 Trucy and gets 8." [1d20=7]
[18:49] <@Janson> roll 1d20-1 Melinda
[18:49] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20-1 Melinda and gets 19." [1d20=20]
[18:50] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+2
[18:50] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+2 and gets 17." [1d20=15]
[18:52] <@Janson> Henrietta and Melinda both manage to hobble out into the Eastern corridor before anything further can happen, but as the exhausted Trucy is pushing herself to catch up, the tables and benches float into the air and start whipping around as if being held by a giant intent on battering the poor girl into a bloody smear!
[18:52] <@Janson> roll 1d20 reflex save
[18:52] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20 reflex save and gets 1." [1d20=1]
[18:52] <@Janson> roll 3d6 damage
[18:52] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 3d6 damage and gets 8." [3d6=5, 1, 2]
[18:54] <@Henrietta> "Trucy!" Henrietta exclaims, extending her hand to the younger girl. "You are almost there!"
[18:54] <@Janson> Trucy screams as she's knocked flying by a vicious blow to the back sending her sprawling in the middle of the room! She dazedly picks herself up and hobbles forward, but her exhausted and pained body can't make the needed pace...
[18:54] <@Janson> OOC: Trucy's 10 feet from the door, new round starts
[18:55] <@Janson> "Oh by the Abyss! Come on girl, you can make it!" Melinda staggers back in after Trucy, ducking her head under an errant swipe and taking the girl's hand, "A bit o' the devil's own luck'll see you through, now come on!"
[18:55] <@Janson> OOC: Henrietta
[19:00] * @Henrietta doesn't even need to think about it, before she is back out in the dining room herself. Melinda is helping Trucy escape, and that must mean it falls upon her to do something about the furniture and delay it, somehow, if only for a moment. She covers Melinda and Trucy's retreat, while presenting a more tempting target for the animated furniture.
[19:02] <@Janson> OOC: everything in the room gets hit, but I'll have you provide a cover bonus to Trucy and Melinda's reflex saves if you can hit AC 15, so make an attack roll?
[19:02] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+5
[19:02] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+5 and gets 11." [1d20=6]
[19:03] <@Janson> The benches and tables dent and splinter as they impact off walls and floors, spinning and flailing after assaulting Trucy and slamming towards the trio for another frenzied storm of furniture!
[19:04] <@Janson> OOC: reflex saves all
[19:04] <@Janson> roll 1d20-1 Melinda
[19:04] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20-1 Melinda and gets 19." [1d20=20]
[19:04] <@Janson> roll 2#1d20 Trucy takes best roll, Luck Domain power
[19:04] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 2#1d20 Trucy takes best roll, Luck Domain power and gets 34." [2#1d20 = 19, 15]
[19:04] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+3
[19:04] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+3 and gets 22." [1d20=19]
[19:05] <@Janson> Now wise to the haunts tricks, Trucy desperately ducks under a table-end with her name on it, scrambling out the door afterwards! Melinda is hot on her heels, calling for Henrietta to hurry as the latter batters away a bench with her flail, sending it shattering into a table away from her!
[19:06] <@Janson> OOC: Go Henri
[19:07] * @Henrietta doesn't need to be told twice! She makes it past the door and then turns it on its remaining hinge, shoving it closed and keeping it in place.
[19:09] <@Janson> The sound of crashing wood is heard over the panting breaths of your two companions, Trucy moaning in pain and rubbing her back. Now that you have time to look around, you can appreciate your current location. This long hallway has an unfinished feel compared to the earlier areas, the cave walls smoothed and supported by brickwork but only sporadically and without the plaster covering from before. Four irregularly and widely spaced metal doors lie on either side of the hallway, recessed deeply into the rock. Each one is wide open, while the second on the left has two robed corpses lying nearby.
[19:10] * @Henrietta breathes in, then out, and repeats the cycle. Let the ghosts spend their energy back in the dining room. It merely gives her a chance to regain some measure of her composure.
[19:12] <@Janson> "Oh, Gods, that's a poltergeist and a half..." Melinda sighs, shaking her head and going to look over Trucy. "Got you good, too. Good thing Davey Jones likes ye!" she smiles sweetly, though Trucy seems somewhat unimpressed.
[19:12] <@Janson> "Hate to see what he does if he doesn't like you," she groans, rubbing her back and looking down the hallway. "What do you think they've got for us next?"
[19:14] <@Henrietta> "A ghost, finally showing itself," Henrietta says, unable to keep from shivering. "But we should do something about it with Melinda! We have to!"
[19:15] <@Janson> "Hope so," the blonde agrees, going to look into the nearby doors. "Cells? These must be the last four children, right?"
[19:16] <@Henrietta> "That should be so," Henrietta agrees, judging herself fit to proceed. "Trucy, can you watch our backs?"
[19:19] <@Janson> "So long as you watch mine," the young girl nods tiredly over the sounds of wood breaking and impacting violently through the closed door. Said door just received a nasty dent, too! Looking through the miserably cells, Henrietta and Melinda find each bare except for a straw mattress, filthy latrine, and trumpeted brass pipe in the ceiling as might be found in a mansion to summon servants or a ship to address the crew. Four adolescent corpses are found between the various cells. Further ahead the passageway continues, an open door faintly glimpsed in the dimming light.
[19:21] <@Henrietta> "We should... look ahead first, I think," Henrietta says, proceeding ahead.
[19:22] <@Janson> Leaving the bodies behind, the group continues ahead at Henrietta's behest, entering a grimy circular room.A boxy operating table dominates the center of this grim laboratory. Crossed with iron restraints and encircled by a gore-encrusted gutter, the macabre device sprouts various cranks and levers, yet is too small to even accomodate an adult. Along the walls stand several tables strewn with all manner of alchemical accoutrements and torturous or surgical implements - blades, braziers, screws, forceps, needles... their contents giving way to age and the elments, with rusted iron tools, beakers of purpled glass, and deep pools of wax from countless melted candles. Several brass pipes protrude down from the ceiling directly above the table. To the North another door hangs open, what looks like a large closet filled with books.
[19:24] <@Henrietta> "I... that is, I think I remember now," Henrietta says, looking queasy. "There is nothing for us here."
[19:29] <@Janson> "Yeah, gives me the creeps..." Trucy mutters, starting to turn away. But before she can even take a step in retreat, the door slams shut with a thunderous crash! Henrietta's glowing light dims noticably as a shadowy presence begins to manifest... one on the table, and one looming over it. There features are indistinct and hazy, but the appearance of a small child and a cowled monster-faced man become apparent on some level, the figure starting to thrash and whimper as restraints are heard being tightened...
[19:31] <@Henrietta> Henrietta doesn't wish to linger, and they should be able to complete the task they came to this haunted place to do. "Would invisibility matter to ghosts? I have some to use, if so," she asks Melinda, about to retreat when she is struck immobile once more. But she doesn't remain locked in horror and indecision for long, as her arm gestures at the cowled monster. "Stop that!" Henrietta commands,
[19:31] <@Henrietta> and if her voice is shaking, the roses she sends on their way at it are unerring.
[19:35] <@Janson> The roses fly true, but go straight through the shadowy figure as if it weren't there. It looks up however, pitiless eyes coring into the party from above a nightmarishly beaked face. "Yes, they wish to see," it hums in an oddly soothing tone. From within the dark folds of its cloak it withdraws a knife... or is it a scalpel? A serrated dagger? A handsaw? It seems to be all these things and more, constantly morphinh. "Cut like so, you see... yes, do scream, let the others hear you..." It reaches down into the desperately writhing figure on the table, and Henrietta can feel it herself, as if her skin were being flayed open! Judging by the reactions of Melinda and Trucy, they can feel it as well!
[19:35] <@Janson> OOC: will saves everyone
[19:35] <@Janson> OOC: +2 bonus
[19:35] <@Janson> roll 1d20+10 Melinda
[19:35] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+10 Melinda and gets 15." [1d20=5]
[19:35] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+8
[19:35] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+8 and gets 21." [1d20=13]
[19:36] <@Janson> roll 1d20+11 Trucy is using a supporting hero point
[19:36] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+11 Trucy is using a supporting hero point and gets 17." [1d20=6]
[19:36] <@Janson> roll 1d20+7 fort save for Melinda
[19:36] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+7 fort save for Melinda and gets 8." [1d20=1]
[19:39] <@Janson> Henrietta feels the blades penetrating her, peeling back skin, exposing her insides to this merciless tormentor! But recalling how her roses went right through it, her mind rebels - it's an illusion, nothing real, nothing that can hurt her! Mastering herself, she looks down and sees her flesh is whole. Trucy likewise exhales sharply and pats herself down. But Melinda lets loose an agonised scream and claws at herself before collapsing bonelessly to the floor!
[19:39] <@Janson> OOC: 30 damage to Melinda
[19:40] <@Janson> Both shades fade away into mist as if they were never there, and Henrietta's light returns to normal.
[19:41] <@Henrietta> "No! Melinda! Wake up!" Henrietta cries out, dropping to her knees by the priestess. "Not like this! It's not real!"
[19:41] <@Janson> roll 1d20+1 stabilisation
[19:41] * Hatbot --> "Janson rolls 1d20+1 stabilisation and gets 10." [1d20=9]
[19:42] <@Janson> Melinda's eyes are open yet unseeing as she lies there insensate, Trucy going to kneel beside her alongside Henrietta. "What's wrong, did she faint? I felt it, but it wasn't real, right?" the young girl asks breathlessly.
[19:42] <@Henrietta> "No, it wasn't real," Henrietta is quick to deny. It doesn't matter if it's true, as long as Trucy believes that.
[19:44] <@Janson> Trucy tries lightly slapping the blonde's cheek, but all that accomplishes is moving her head.
[19:45] <@Henrietta> "Do you think she has, that is, something like one of Glenn's potions?" Henrietta asks, deciding to check. If she has been saving something for a rainy day, Henrietta will pay for the costs.
[19:46] <@Janson> Searching Melinda's pockets, Henrietta finds a small waterskin, a bag full of coins, a key, and a glass vial labelled with 'Remove Blindness'.
[19:48] * @Henrietta almost wants to cry in frustration. She cannot ensure Melinda's safety without doing something for the ghosts, yet the only one who can help them is unconscious and at their mercy. Still, she cannot lose hope, or all is truly lost. Picking up Melinda, Henrietta returns back to the cells. If the door is no longer under assault, that would be a small mercy.
[19:49] <@Janson> The torture chamber door opens easily now, and going back you can no longer hear sounds of carnage in the dining room.
[19:51] <@Henrietta> "We should start getting back," Henrietta suggests with far more confidence than she feels. She stands a bit straighter, and achieves a certain level of detachment she had only read about thus far. "Melinda said we should be able to pass in relative safety, now. Once we are back at the boat, please watch over her while I bring the remaining children over. Then, we can finally help them put all
[19:51] <@Henrietta> this behind them."
[19:52] <@Janson> "Are you sure we should split up?" Trucy asks nervously.
[19:53] <@Henrietta> "Can you carry them out, then?" Henrietta asks. "As little as I want to split up, I wish to leave Melinda somewhere behind even less, even if it is supposedly a safe place like the docks."
[19:54] <@Janson> "I can, they're not that big," Trucy nods firmly, going to get one of the nearby corpses and lifting it up. She strains under the weight, and walks even more slowly with it, but doesn't complain as she stumbles after Henrietta.
[19:55] <@Henrietta> Then that would have to do. Henrietta cannot tell if it would be safer to stay together like this, but they lack much in the way of choices. Just a trip back, then, and three round trips after it.
[19:57] <@Janson> The dining hall is ravaged, tables and benches lying broken haphazardly all about and forcing the two to clamber carefully over them with their precious cargos. But nothing further haunts them on their trip back to the boat or indeed their return, and eventually although worn and weary they finish hauling every innocent corpse out of the wretched ruin.
[20:00] * @Henrietta carefully places Melinda down and decides to consult with Trucy about their next move. "Can we find a place to dock along our route back?" she asks. "Staying here would be tempting fate, I think, but so would going all the way back to Salerno in our state."
[20:01] <@Janson> "I never saw any harbours on our way out here," Trucy replies as she rummages around to find her supper. "We could just put out to sea a bit instead?"
[20:03] * @Henrietta waits long enough to see if Trucy's supper suffered the fate of her rations, as that would decide her own. "Alright. Direct me how I can help. And if it is light, I have an endless supply of it."
[20:04] <@Janson> The food is fresh out here, and goes a long way to filling a hole. Trucy then quite handily gets to work on maneuvering the ship back out into the darkening twilight, navigating South away from the hazardous cliffs so there's less chance of being dashed against them overnight.
[20:10] <@Janson> The night passes uneventfully, and it's getting well into morning as Trucy and Henrietta finish eating and cleaning up that Melinda jerks awake with a strangled gasp, shooting bolt upright with her twintails flying as she looks around in a panic!
[20:11] <@Henrietta> "It's alright!" Henrietta exclaims, zooming over to her side and placing a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "It wasn't real and you are alright!"
[20:12] <@Janson> "Oh... oh! Oh..." Melinda calms down after patting herself down. "Oh, I had the most horrible dreams... not even my initiation was that bad!" she gasps.
[20:14] <@Henrietta> "If we help the children, will that... that thing disappear, too?" Henrietta asks, unable to keep herself from glancing warily in the direction of the facility they had left behind.
[20:14] <@Janson> "It... it should," Melinda hauls herself to her feet, readily accepting the squash offered by Trucy and taking a big bite. "Most hauntings aren't demanding things, they just want to rest in peace. If we're all here, we should get to it."
[20:16] <@Henrietta> "Would we need to return for those... special burials?" Henrietta asks, wincing. "They ones you mentioned for the adults who ran that place?"
[20:19] <@Janson> "We can do that, but they're not the ones behind the haunting. It'll be safe after we see to the children," Melinda declares, polishing off her breakfast and searching around for her hat a moment before Trucy hands it over as well. Placing it squarely on her head, she marches onto the deck. "Right, I'll get us started, call up Davey Jones to witness, and then as I commend each to the deep I'll want you two to drop them in one by one. Think ye can handle that?"
[20:20] <@Henrietta> That's it? Then again, Henrietta didn't expect a ceremony the likes one might see at an emperor's funeral. "If that is how I can help, then certainly," she assures Melinda. "I will be ready to do as you say."
[20:25] <@Janson> Clutching her silver sextant tightly, Melinda looks up into the pale blue sky, remnants of the recent storm long since passed. "Hear me, and hear me well, ye sneaky covetous Devil o' the Deep Blue Sea!" she calls, "And I'll tell ye the tale of these two score miserable children what died so close to yer clutches, tauntingly placed by yer shore an' left to rot! T'was evil landlubbers and cowardly plots what stole 'em away from a proper life in the blessed harbour of Salerno, and brought upon them a terror as vile as any pirate lord could muster! So I say these be honourary sailors, deservin' o' as much respect! If ye've got the balls to disagree, then strike me down now so says I!" she calls, lowering her voice to the deep and ominous timbre she tends to adopt whenever trying to scare people. All around you the sea continues to rock placidly at your boat, not even a cawing seagull heard...
[20:27] <@Henrietta> If anything, her theatrics serve to restore a great deal of Henrietta's spirit, already invigorated by Melinda's miraculous recovery.
[20:29] * Kotono is now known as Xorned
[20:31] <@Janson> "An' so I thought," Melinda nods in satisfaction, sweeping her gaze over the ocean. "Then open yer locker at the bottom o' the depths, where no' even a leviathan serpent or ancient kraken would dare to slither!" An unsettling pall begins to descend over the boat, but if anything Melinda seems even more suffused with energy, reaching into her pocket and taking out a single silver coin. "Tis no' a prince's ransom, but 'tis as much as they're worth, and as much as ye deserve!" she spits on the coin and hurls it out to sea where it lands with nary a splash. "Now, lasses," she mutters, nodding her head to Henrietta and Trucy. "Wretched child, unworthy soul! End yer scurrilous hauntings and know the peace of darkness in Davey Jones' locker!"
[20:33] <@Henrietta> Having been prepared for this, Henrietta executes her own part in the ceremony. It feels so counter-intuitive to drop the bodies into the ocean, but this is just one of those things where she should listen fully to the experts and follow their instructions. And she had sought out and hired Melinda on her own, had she not?
[20:40] <@Janson> Melinda repeats her final words for each body as its lowered into the waves by Henrietta and Trucy, each of them sinking as if affixed to lead weights and descending out of sight as soon as they touch the water. Your spirits feel lighter each time, despite the air growing heavier and more charged around you, as if something were building. And as the last tiny little rag-clothed girl is lowered to Davey Jones' realm, the building storm of spiritual energy breaks! Whirling around the boat is a veritable hurricane of spirits, childish faces glimpsed in the glowing pale green energy showing naked relief! Henrietta can feel their gratitude filling her up, along with tremendous energy! Her wounds and hurts are eased, and Melinda and Trucy seem to be showing much the same as they perk up and look around in wonder... But more than that, the sorceress can feel the long pent up power of the haunting hanging on her command, a final trigger needed to excise it completely in satisfying whatever desire she might have...
[20:45] <@Henrietta> It is not a desire, Henrietta thinks to herself, as happiness for the freed souls of the children mixes with sadness at their untimely deaths and the preceding torture. But if there are more of them, being abducted and tormented to create those... eidolons... then Henrietta wishes with all her heart that she could stop that evil, and help those other abductees.
[20:48] <@Janson> As Henrietta makes her wish, the power is drawn further into her, building... but something is wrong, she feels another presence drawing in from afar! It smothers the energy that was momentarily hers to command, redirecting and reshaping it... It's too much, she feels overcome!
[20:48] <@Janson> It's as if Henrietta has blanked out, though her sense of time is askew and she can't tell for how long. But when she opens her eyes she finds herself... elsewhere. An enormous hall, easily big enough to encompass a small town, the walls adorned with ancient and priceless paintings, flags of nations once conquered or made to swear fealty, vast frescos in the ceiling showing scenes from history, titanic pillars holding up the roof over this impossibly huge chamber. And all around her are people dressed in the most elaborate and fanciful robes and dresses, towering dragons milling around peacefully adorned in great tabards, their scales painted artfully... and in the distance, rising like a hill over the entire assembly, a figure so tiny in comparison yet wielding the power to control everything here and for countless leagues beyond... this is a place Henrietta has never visited but has read of and seen pictures of many times. The throne room of the Divine Emperor!
[20:49] * @Henrietta rubs at her eyes.
[20:52] <@Janson> Her arms feel sluggish and reluctant to respond, as if she were swimming through sludge. Yet as she rubs her eyes, her legs move of their own volition, carrying her towards that throne in the distance. Yet as she walks, the scene changes... Decay sets in, a foul and unearthly green glow replacing the false sunlight that ordinarily lights the Emperor's Throne. Flags on the walls rot away into tattered rags, and the assembled courtiers around her rot themselves, skin and scales sloughing off to reveal bleached bone underneath, yet they continue to mill around as if nothing were happening. Henrietta feels herself moving faster and faster, approaching the distant throne at a speed beyond what should be humanly possible...
[20:55] <@Henrietta> This is real or, at least, the experience is real for her. There is no more time to lose on futile attempts at disbelief. For now, Henrietta must keep her calm and stay cool. She can move against this compulsion, even though it is nigh-impossible; she will conserve her strength if this... vision, or whatever it could possibly be, wishes her harm. For now, she goes along, and as everything about
[20:55] <@Henrietta> her dies, her eyes focus on the figure of the Divine Emperor up ahead.
[20:59] <@Janson> She ghosts up the arduous steps towards the throne as if they were nothing more than a short walk through her mother's garden. And before her, flanked by two titanic skeletal and armoured dragons, stands the throne of the Emperor... albeit crumbling as if the weight of millenia lay upon it. And sitting on that throne, rising to meet her... he wears the thick golden Emperor's rainment, atop his head is a massive elaborate headpiece adorned with priceless jewels, everything on him is pristine and perfect at odds with the surroundings... and at odds with him. A cracked black skull meets Henrietta's gaze, burning baneful green fires sparking in otherwise empty eye sockets. It is a face Henrietta has been taught to fear by her parents since she was young, it is the Undying Emperor!
[21:03] * @Henrietta thinks she can be brave, or put on a brave front for others, in the line of duty. Yet, there is a limit to her nerves. It is all she can do to not break down and cry like a little girl; speaking or moving in the very presence of the Undying Emperor -- who should not exist, damn it all! -- would just be asking too much out of her.
[21:06] <@Janson> The skull face of Jovar's most feared boogeyman does not show any expression in response to Henrietta's terror, only regarding her for what feels like forever. When it opens its mouth, the voice that comes forth sounds like the death of everything, so hateful, so focused... so patient. "Henrietta Ul Copt," the blasphemous Emperor says her name in that terrible voice. "You bear my mark... You wish for power..."
[21:10] <@Henrietta> roll 1d20+3 religion
[21:10] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+3 religion and gets 21." [1d20=18]
[21:11] * Joins: Merc-laptop (~k@69.38.252.83)
[21:13] <@Henrietta> "Your mark, Majesty?" Henrietta forces herself to ask. Her voice sounds so dry to her ears, almost rasping, to a point she can barely recognize it. She lowers her head from ingrained instincts her conscious mind and will brought together cannot overcome.
[21:13] * Quits: Merc-laptop (~k@69.38.252.83) (Connection reset by peer)
[21:18] <@Janson> "A trifle left behind long ago, almost forgotten," the Undying Emperor replies blandly, "But as you travelled to barbarian lands, so did it. And when you found it, it drew you to my gaze. And now... you may humour the superstitions of barbarians, but you know they are not real. Not like I am... and I await your return, Henrietta Ul Copt." With that final pronouncement Henrietta feels herself pulled away suddenly, the blasphemous throne fading away into impossible distance as the yacht off the Prannerian coast manifests around her, the final echo of the haunting dying down and Melinda and Trucy both nearby seeming quite pleased as they look around without paying any note to the redheaded sorceress. Yet Henrietta feels... different.
[21:21] <@Henrietta> Only one thought goes through Henrietta's mind, even as she turns away from Melinda and Trucy, unable to summon so much as an illusion of elation. Her parents always warned her this would happen....
[21:25] <@Janson> Trucy seems to notice after a moment. "What's wrong, Henrietta? We did it, right?"
[21:28] <@Henrietta> "Am I a good person, Trucy?"
[21:28] <@Janson> "Huh?" Trucy blinks, "Well, yeah. What we did just proves it, right? And you gave me a second chance, and saved those guys from Griffin Reef, right?"
[21:31] <@Henrietta> She must be the nicest person going to Hell, then. Well, that's something, and once the shock passes, Henrietta is almost certain she can have a laugh about it.
[21:31] <@Henrietta> "I guess. Thanks. I am just... tired." She brings a hand to her forehead, weaving a convenient and believable lie. "All that energy... it was building up for something serious, but something went wrong, I am afraid. I think I suffered the backlash. Would you mind terribly if I just rest the rest of the way to Salerno?"
[21:32] <@Janson> "Sure, little boat like this I could sail it even without Melinda around to help." Trucy gives Henrietta a reassuring smile. "Go rest up, we'll be home in no time!"