Anne

Rejection, if only merely temporary was not what Anne had expected and she remained silent, simply nodding to the words Tamora said afterwards.

Anne sat down on a fallen tree branch after Tamora went to scout ahead, her thoughts in jumbles. What am I really doing in this world? Would I go back home if I could?

Such questions and thoughts about the others would probably continue bothering her until Balth and Bas caught up.

<u>Lorath</u>

"That will not work," commented a guttural, croaking voice, like a sentient toad, it sounded like it was coming from behind Lorath, "Trust me, I have expended months searching for a way in."

Behind the elf, Lorath's mysterious, underwater stalker had emerged into open air for once. He looked like a muscular human, albeit only barely, except for his head and hands, the entirety of his body was covered in what looked like inch-thick calluses. His head, though unafflicted by the callus-growth, was not normal either, the lower half was wrapped in some sort of organic-looking growth, striped in blue and yellow. From his short, black hair sprouted two rows of tiny, horn-like nubs, each a different, bright colour. From his forehead sprouted two skinny tentacles which each ended in a flat, yellow eye. Only the skin around his eyes was visible, it looked wrinkled and ancient. His hands looked like parchment stretched over bones, and vicious-looking claws sprouted from the tips of his fingers.

He gestured with a claw towards the door, "In my many months trapped here, I have explored many underwater chambers, there are air pockets where a few artifacts survive unscathed, through those, I have discovered the way to get through the door. We both tried the correct method, but we are the wrong people. Entry requires an..." he halted, searching for the word, "Unmodified, person. We could flay your symbiotes from your body, but then I doubt you would be in any state to open the door, nor particularly inclined to assist me."


<u>Ulik, Evon</u>

As the sudden animation of everything in sight ended, the faint sound of someone speaking drifted up from the downwards-leading corridor.


<u>Bas, Anne, Balth</u>

Balth was in a particularly sunny mood as the others prepared to set out, but this ended abruptly when he was told where they were headed.

"You're chasing after that fool?" He questioned Bas, as Tamora headed into the jungle to scout ahead, "If he's been gone for this long he either doesn't want to see us again or he's dead! My money's on dead," Balth seemed to regain control of himself, "But, since you're not heading further east and I've yet to repay my debt to you, I will come along."

As they packed up their equipment and followed Tamora's trail, easily followed since she took the same path as Gan, Balth stayed close to Anne, seemingly trying to keep a distance from Bas. He was quiet whenever the druid was too close, but chatty whenever the half-elf was away, questioning Anne about the cities of her homeworld, since she seemed more urban than the other two. He seemed particularly interested in the use of metal, for some reason.


<u>Tamora</u>

The trail was easy to follow, Gan had wandered straight through the vegetation, apparently not bothering to carve a path with his swords or walk around obstructions. Blood-stains showed that he had wandered straight through a bush sporting terrifying, inch-long thorns, and his bloody hand-prints made him easier to follow from there on.

Tamora walked for hours, occasionally hearing a snap, crack or faint mumble of conversation some distance behind her as the others followed her trail.

As the sun reached it's zenith above her, the thick plants ahead began to thin out and she could hear the sound of rushing water ahead. Peering through the jungle, the ranger could see a wide river ahead, blocking her path, it had a rocky bed and it's waters were swift.

On the nearest bank, she saw Gan's longbow, not a weapon he had used in her presence, but one she had seen in her back, lying broken. The nearby plants were stained with blood in large amounts, though it was impossible to tell whose. There was no sign of a corpse, the half-elf or the remainder of his equipment. Most of the blood looked like it was pooled under a single tree, and it did not trail off in any direction, a lot of it had gotten on the trunk.


<u>Bas, Tamora, Anne, Balth</u>

The others caught up with the elf in short order as she investigated the scene.

Anne thought she saw noticeable relief in Balth's eyes as he saw the blood, "See?" He said, his demeanor oddly improved, "No one could lose that much blood and still be walking!"

"Now maybe," he continued, "Just maybe, we should get out of here before whatever ate your friend decides it's time for dessert? The kid had swords, I doubt it was just a tiger that got the jump on him, probably something worse..." He nervously scanned the surrounding brush.

Tamora

As the others arrived on the scene they saw Tamora minutely inspecting the ground where it seemed Gan had disappeared. Hearing them arrive she held out the palm of her hand to indicate they should stay where they were. When Balth talked she turned to look at him and held a finger up to her lips.

She looked into the tree, craning her neck slowly from side to side to see into the canopy from different angles as she slowly moved towards it. Reaching the trunk she reached out and touched the blood stains using her experience tracing wounded creatures to try to get a sense of its type and how long it had been there. Still checking the tree she then removed her bow and spear and making sure her knives were accessible prepared to start climbing the tree.

[ 03-05-2007, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

Anne

Anne watched Tamora moving about, investigating the ground and then the tree. As Tamora started climbing, Anne could feel a flash of pain in her own leg, result of her own failed attempt at climbing. She decided against a word of encouragement for Tamora, not wanting to break her concentration as she climbed. Instead she turned to Balth, intent on exploring the reasons of the elf's sudden happyness.

"You seem to be jolly glad at finding pools of blood and but a broken bow...I can't help but wonder whether you are happy because of what might have happened to poor Gan."

If it is indeed the case, we shall have to be very careful around Balth, she thought, her eyes filled with suspicion as she watched the elf, waiting for his answer to the accusation.

Lorath jumped at the voice when he first heard it, but got used to it as the... person spoke. It sounded like he was offering something that Lorath wanted, two things actually, but only one of them seemed like a good idea. "I really don't think that removing these symbiotes would be a good idea, at least not in the water," he replied. "However, I would very much like to get inside this door, and if you can get me in I would be very grateful." He pulled his belt out into his hand, and said, "Don't worry, I have a plan."

He dunked himself under the water and grabbed for a root towards the bottom. His plan was to try to get one even slightly loose, then slip his belt over the tip of the root. Once it was securely held in place by the roots themselves he would resurface and cast Enlarge on the belt. From there he would work it up slowly, trying to break off this root. Once it didn't seem like it could go any further or had reached its end, he would saw it off with his sword.

After the first one was finished, he would try it again with an adjacent root, trying with his tail if it looked like the belt was getting worn, or using his rope. If it came to using the rope, he would cut off a ten inch segment and use the same procedure he did with the belt.

While he worked, he hoped that the other humanoid was also working, and decided to strike up a conversation. "What was all that talk about 'we both?'" he asked. "Is there another person here with you?"

"Well, that's about the last thing I expected." thought Ulik. He sits down to study the notebook and scrolls, choosing to ignore the voices for now. It was probably Lorath and some crazy mutant he'd picked up along the way, who'd ask him to do something stupid like stick his hand in a sentient door's mouth.

<u>Lorath</u>

"By we," said the creature, or person, as it impassively watched Lorath work, "I meant you and I. The door is not there to eat intruders, merely to taste them. If it detects a symbiote, it will not let you pass, whatever lies beyond is not meant for those like us, which is exactly why I intend to find out what is there."

Despite having increased his unimpressive strength with magic, Lorath found that his attempt at gaining entry was unsuccesful, he simply could not lift the roots enough to get to work at them.

"Don't you think that I would have gained entry by now if mere brute force was enough?" The thing chuckled and walked closer to the elf, "I've been watching you for some time, and I noticed that another entered this place with you, he did not seem... Augmented. Perhaps we should recruit him?"


<u>Ulik, Evon</u>

Despite not having studied much magical theory, Ulik managed to decipher the effects of the scrolls in short order, which left him free to read the notebook.

It seemed to be the diary of a mage named Roraz Wrenth, who was accompanying an adventuring party, as far as Ulik could tell, they were not native to the world he was currently standing on, as there was mention of them arriving by magic. However, it seemed that their trip had not been without it's problems, almost immediately after arriving, their way back had become "disjointed," as the mage described it, and would no longer serve. They had explored the ruins hoping to find some natives that could assist them in locating a way home.

One of the members of the party, a lizardman not mentioned by name in any of the intact parts, had cracked open one of the spheres, releasing a swarm of ravenous, flesh-devouring worms which had immediately attacked him and another member of the group. In their haste to get away from the damn things, the remaining members had gotten split up, as well as accidentially breaking open more of the spheres, releasing various unpleasant parasites.

The mage had been stuck in the room for a while with a woman who had apparently gotten one attached to her head, something that had radically changed her personality, she had even gone so far as to attack him when he tried to remove it. Not wanting his posessions to be damaged by the water in case he survived, he had left the backpack behind in the room to go exploring, hoping that the areas on this side of the underground river were free of parasites.

The language used in the diary was an odd dialect of Common, so Ulik wasn't entirely sure on the details, but it seemed as though there had originally been six members of the party. The parts detailing their purpose were irreperably damaged.


<u>Tamora, Anne, Bas, Balth</u>

Balth did not seem particularly hurt by Anne's accusation, merely regarding her with a tired expression before replying.

"I already knew he was dead, Anne," the elf said to the rogue as they watched Tamora ascend the tree, "I told you all so back at the cliffs, I'm merely glad that we've found his remains. If we hadn't, you might've ended up wasting days trying to find him, which would have meant spending more time in this forsaken part of the jungle."

Above them, the ranger was making swift progress up the wet trunk of the tree, towards the crown, using the large, easily grasped branches to make her climb easier.

When Tamora was only a foot under the branches obscuring her view and reached up to move them aside, something leapt to attack! It fell straight on her and almost tore her from the tree, it was dark red, sticky and leaking some sort of warm liquid. With practiced ease, she drew a dagger and slammed it into the chest of the thing before flinging it from the tree, to land on the ground next to her companions.

Only then did she and the others recognize what it was: A flayed halfling corpse. Almost all of the skin and flesh had been torn from it, large dents in the bones betrayed where teeth had made inroads into the soft tissue. What little skin remained was marked by bright whites, purples and blacks. It didn't look like the skin's natural hues, but rather like war paints. The warm liquid it had leaked unto Tamora was blood.

As the group got over the shock, something else moved in the top of the tree. A massive, dark shape that flung itself with ease into the crown of another tree and made a swift escape. Moving so fast that the only impression the group got was that of a dark brown furry thing bigger than a wild boar.

Bas remained silent on their trip through the forest, glad that Balth had chosen someone else to talk with. The druid preferred to immerse himself in the life around him, the smells and sounds that gave him a sense of peace.

After finding the blood spattered area Bas walked a slow circle around the blood, scanning the area for signs of a predator. As Tamora clambered up the tree the druid stopped to watch her ascent. He hoped this wouldn't result in two injured members of the party.

Bas jumped as the corpse thudded into the earth, and it took a moment for him to catch his breath as he examined the body. The halfling looked mutilated, not just eaten, and that was a cause of concern. Perhaps the predator was interested in more than just food?

Bas rushed to the tree and peered up to try and spot Tamora, hoping that she had survived her encounters with the halfling and strange shape headed away through the tree tops.

Tamora

Tamora looked down to Bas and the corpse that had fortunately missed him. “Sorry about that,” she called down. She continued a little further up the tree and then climbed back down dropping the last couple of feet to the ground. She picked up her gear and walked over to Bas.

“There’s no sign of Gan up there. He walked into this clearing and didn’t walk out. His tracks end over there, he walked about a bit there is no sign of a fight or that he lay down. There are a lot of tracks of small feet that I’m assuming came from people like this unfortunate here.” She indicated the halfling. “The halflings arrived and left by the river and I have no idea if they went upstream or downstream.”

She looked around the clearing trying to picture a scene that could explain what she had found then shook her head as if to clear it. “I suppose it’s possible that the halflings carried him off but why would they break and leave his bow – if they took him against his will he’d have struggled and I’d have read that.” She trailed off. “But I suppose it is possible”.

She turned back to the others. “Beside that, Gan either disappeared or flew off neither of which we can really rule out given our experiences so far. None of that helps us very much in deciding a course of action though. In any case I’m not sure lingering here is very wise”. She scanned the trees and foliage around and suddenly her eyes widened. Moving over to Bas she quietly asked, “Learned One, Bas . . . can you commune with plants?”

Tired from the strain, Lorath leaned on the door, trying to catch his breath. "Yeah, sure," he finally managed. "He should still be in here. In fact I might know where to find him." Taking a deep breath he pushed himself away from the door and began sloughing back through the water, going towards the source of the noise he had heard not too long ago.

Anne

The amount of blood and Tamora's account left little doubt to it. Gan was probably lost to them, and quite possibly dead. Anne turned to Balth, intent on adressing his last comment.

"How did you know that Gan was dead?" she asked. Balth was starting to seem more and more suspicious to Anne and if it hadn't been for Tamora following the tracks, and not spotting any, which belonged to Balth, of which she would have surely spoken, her tone would have been much more accusatory.

Ulik gathers his new toys and drags Evon along to the stone ladder. He sends Evon down first, in case his impaired ally should slip and cause them both to fall, then descends after him.

<u>Lorath</u>

"I will be around," stated the strange stranger, "In the shadows or in the water, until you have the vault open, it could be a setback if I startled your friend." Then he slipped under the dark surface of the water and squeezed himself down through a crack in the floor that Lorath hadn't noticed before, leaving the elf alone.

Ascending through the corridors, Lorath eventually arrived at an empty room some time after the floor had risen above the water. On the other side of the small room, beyond a doorway, he could see a massive cave where the river he had crossed earlier ended in a waterfall. Glowing fungus covering many of the stalagtites on the cave's ceiling made it possible to see the scene easily.

Just outside of the door was a platform which was just above the surface of the water, coming from somewhere to the left of the door, apparently on the platform, the elf could hear Ulik telling Evon to climb down a ladder.


<u>Ulik, Evon</u>

Evon looked apprehensively at the ladder, then laid down on the platform, sticking his head over the edge to stare into the depths. After a few seconds he spat into the abyss and listened intently for a few seconds. He seemed to consider his options for a while, then stood up and gave Ulik an incredulous look, followed up by a rude gesture.

Foggy the man's mind probably was, but there seemed to be a sense of self-preservation remaining. It was doubtful that he was going to descend the spray-slick, age-worn steps willingly.

Behind them, from within the room they had just exited, they could hear footsteps, accompanied by the sound of wet fabric dragging and sloshing across the stone floor.


<u>Ulik, Evon, Lorath</u>

Lorath stepped forth from the room and saw Evon coldly showing Ulik his displeasure, not appearing to care that the elf had just arrived on the scene, wearing soaking wet robes, covered by a garishly-coloured hooded cloak, and with a serpentine tail protruding out under the hem.

The other two had boringly enough elected not to acquire new clothes or modify their bodies in the few hours since they'd parted ways.


<u>Tamora, Anne, Bas, Balth</u>

"Well it appears that he's not," replied Balth, then he walked over and poked the halfling's corpse with the tip of his boot, as if assuring himself that it wasn't going to stand up and start talking, "However, if you had opened your ears, something that's damn important around here, you'd have heard I said that no one survives for long around here on their own. Look at this poor guy, torn apart by something with huge teeth, even I would have been dead if you four hadn't come along in time."

While Bas and Tamora talked about the situation, he studied Anne briefly, "In fact, we've just seen that it isn't his corpse, yet you're declaring him dead, maybe you're the one we should be suspicious of, hm? You strike me as light of foot, and fingers, perhaps you've slipped something into his rations, into his waterskin? There are many terrible poisons that can cause delirium..."

When no one else was looking, he gave the rogue a humourless smile, but said nothing further.

"Now if you want my opinion," he spoke to Tamora, putting on a friendlier smile than the one he had given Anne, after she had analyzed the situation, "There are probably tracks from your friend, not to insult your skills as a tracker, but they could easily have gotten lost in all those other footprints. You all came from the west, didn't you? At least, you did when I first met you. He must've gotten lost or panicked somehow, found the river and decided it was safer than wandering through the jungle. Probably waded through the edge of it to hide his tracks."

Bas did not spot any large predators prepared to leap upon the party, but he saw marks in the upper branches of the nearby trees which suggested that something with large claws had been crawling around in them. Judging by the number of claw-marks, and the fact that they varied a lot in size, it actually seemed like there was more than one of whatever it was.

[ 03-07-2007, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: PurpleXVI ]

Tamora

Tamora doubted Balth’s reading of the situation. He was wrong about Gan’s tracks and hadn’t taken into account that Gan had made no attempt to cover them thus far. She feared that he was probably closer to the likely outcome however and agreed with his suggested course of action. But still there was that nagging suspicion that they were abandoning Gan.

“Thank you Balth for your advice – I fear that it contains much wisdom. The only choices I see are between upstream or down. Down will take us back to the lake and is more likely to be the route Gan would have taken for that and other reasons. I do not wish to abandon Gan but I don’t believe we can hope to find him without a trail. I think we should travel back to the lake along the river and keep alert for signs of Gan or the halflings.”

She looked intently to Anne and Bas, trying to discern their reaction to her words, particularly Anne’s. She looked up at the sky squinting at the baking sun. “It is noon now and though I would want to put some distance between us and this place by nightfall we have a little time. I think Balth and I should scout swiftly upstream for an hour and if we find nothing, come back then continue down.”

While waiting for the others to consider the plan she asked Balth what he knows of the halflings. If all agree then she’ll do it. Crossing the river here heading upstream for an hour then crossing back for the return.

At first Lorath was confused as to why Ulik and Evon were wondering whether to go down the stairs. Then he realized it didn't matter, as they were still unmodified as his new friend would say, even if they didn't have his same taste in clothing. After the usual reintroductions such as asking them how they've been, if they found anything cool, and if Evon was going to share any of his shrooms (ooc: he only asked as a joke, it was well known that Evon would never part with even one), he pointed back the way he came. "I found a door, but I need your help to open it," he said. "Apparently it's hiding some kind of artifacts, though, and it looks a lot safer than what you seem to be doing."

Ulik was about to respond to Evon with his own string of obscenities and gestures when Lorath finds them. He raises an eyebrow as he looks at Lorath's coat and tail, saying "Well, those are new. And anything is safer then going back in to those ruins."

He shows Lorath the notebook he found that warned of the dangerous parasites. "If you still want to go back in after reading that, then help me with this first." he says, laying the flattened birdcage on the ground. "It seems we'll all have to pull at it from different sides to set it up...how do you know that door is hiding artifacts behind it, anyway? And what can we do to help you open it?"

[ 03-07-2007, 08:02 PM: Message edited by: Caleb808 ]

Lorath nodded as he read the parasite-related passages, and made a note to curse the party that had been here before and unleashed these symbiotes. One day he would have to have them removed, even if it killed him. For the moment though he wanted to get inside that room and find out what was on the other side, so he figured it would be a good idea to help Ulik open the cage.

He stood opposite Ulik and moved so that he, Ulik and Evon would be evenly spaced as they tried to open it. "Someone who's been here for a while told me," Lorath replied to Ulik's question. "He also seems to think that the door reacts negatively to people who are currently hosting symbiotes. I figure that we can try it, and if it is a double-cross we'll still outnumber him three to one."

Bas frowned as Balth and Anne bickered. He was grateful for Tamora's presence, as she seemed to be able to handle the others and also come up with useful suggestions for their current situation.

"I can not communicate with plants, at least not in a way that would help us here. However, judging by the marks on the trees I would guess that there are more predators around than the one that killed this halfling. While I won't protest against your desire to search upstream for Gan, I think that Anne and I should head towards the lake. You and Balth can catch up with us after your search, as our pace will be slowed by Anne's injury."

(OOC: This post is entirely for reference, but do NOT post any more on this thread, I have requested it be locked, wait till I make a new thread.)

<u>Lorath, Ulik, Evon</u>

It took the trio a few tries before they managed to get a good start on unfolding the structure, their first attempts produced warning, metal screeches as various parts scraped along or got stuck on each other. The object quickly began to take on a puzzling shape as they worked on it, however, that of a three-sided pyramid taller than Ulik and four feet wide along each of the base's sides.

One of the three faces, the one that Evon faced as they work, eventually stood almost vertical, while the others leaned into it.

When they finished, several small catches seemed to click into place. They could collapse it again, if they wanted to bring it along, but they didn't need to stand around, holding it up.

At first, nothing odd seemed to be going on, but then Evon started laughing and stuck his hand through the face of the pyramid he was standing in front of, it promptly disappeared up to his elbow, but without any of the bleeding, screaming or horror that this would normally be accompanied by. He then withdrew it, and it returned. Repeating this a few times seemed to entertain him to no end. Then he stepped through entirely, and disappeared from view.

Walking around the structure to where Evon had stood, Ulik and Lorath could see that the thing appeared to have opened a doorway in the air. On the other side was an expanse of cobblestones, surrounded by a low stone battlement, under a cloud-covered twilight sky. A mild breeze was blowing from the doorway, and Evon was standing just on the other side, but other than that it seemed surprisingly unremarkable for a portal.


<u>Bas, Tamora, Anne, Balth</u>

Balth stayed silent as he scouted upriver with Tamora, seeming grim and on guard for anything terrible that might ambush them. Both of them found nothing, however, neither an ambush, halflings or any sign of Gan, and soon returned downriver again, catching up with Bas and Anne easily. Those two had stumbled across anything terrible either.

With no vegetation in their path, the group made swift progress, it also helped that they were moving slightly downhill, away from the mountains, their first day of travel passed without incident.

On the second day, the river widened and deepened as they moved onwards, it's waters also seemed to run considerably swifter. The surrounding jungle wasn't much different, though, there were a few flowers and plants they hadn't seen before growing near the rushing water, but otherwise all was normal.

Shortly before noon, however, something happened. They were walking along the riverbank, Balth splashing through the water's edge, occasionally examining an interesting shell or picking up a smooth rock from the riverbed to send skipping downstream, when there was a commotion on the opposite side of the river.

A halfling burst from the thick vegetation, covered in blood, grime and terrible wounds, her war-paint smeared. She didn't seem to notice the group at all, instead, she seemed entirely focused on two things: The river in front of her and something behind her. As she reached the river she stood as still as a rock and listened, when something rustled close-by behind her, she began wading into the river. It went well till she was about a third across and the water reached to her chest, then she seemed to slip on something and went under, disappearing from view.

Whatever had been behind her seemed to move around in the vegetation some, then retreated, making no more sounds.

A few miles farther downstream they found her again, dead. She looked as though she had drowned.