[PurpleXVI]

Lorath

Lorath sat down hard on the serpent, and the first thing that hit his senses was the feeling of it buckling under him, of things being crushed, he even thought he heard a faint snapping of bone.

The second thing that hit his senses was pure agony, he had once broken an arm, and this was comparable, except this was a limb he didn't even know he had. It felt as though he was feeling every single bruise and break in the serpent as though it was part of him.

(Lorath loses 2 HP, 10 HP remain.)

As the pain subsided, the elf realized he could sense the creature as though it was another one of his limbs. He could even, though at the moment it was extremely painful to do so, move it. Whatever sentience it once had, it seemed to have abandoned.


Evon, Ulik

Ulik's magical defense seemed to work, for no bizarre squid or other creatures chased him and Evon down the dark passage.

The passage was straight but narrow, with no side corridors. As soon as they moved into it, Ulik could feel that the water was rushing towards the far end, this propelled them faster down the narrow route, which earned them both a few harmless bruises as they collided with the walls, but never too fast for Ulik to brake them simply by paddling in the opposite direction.

About a minute of careful steering after entering the passage, they burst into another large room, though this one was considerably more huge and looked to be a natural cavern rather than a constructed place. There was more space above them as well, Ulik could have stood upright on Evon's back, provided he could keep his balance, and not have hit his head on the ceiling. The occasional stalagtite clung to the ceiling, but none of them looked huge or likely to fall and crack the skulls of unwary adventurers. Most of the cavern's sparse lighting was provided by glowing fungus and mushrooms growing on the stalagtites.

It was roughly rectangular, with the passage they'd just come out of entering near the end of one of the long sides. The roaring came from their right, and that was the direction the flow of the water was trying to pull them in as well. Most of the end of the room on their left was open, it looked as though parts of the wall had once been masonry, but they had long collapsed, and now there was just a gaping hole leading to a massive, swift river which poured into the cave.

About halfway along the length to their right, the water suddenly disappeared over a waterfall which stretched completely across the room. By carefully maneuvering himself closer, Ulik could see that the drop beyond was deep, he could not even see the end of it. He also saw why the waterfall wasn't dragging him over the edge, stretching up from the edge of the drop to just a foot under the surface was a natural wall of rock, just a few feet wide. It prevented the caverns from flooding completely, but also prevented them from draining completely. If anything was to smash through it, it's likely that the caves would be left much more easily explorable, though whoever did it would have to be clever enough not to get swept along with the deluge.

At the edge of the waterfall on the other side of the room, there was what looked like a quay. It was impossible to tell what the structure had been used for back before the cave was completely flooded, but now it was a flat rectangle which stretched along a remaining piece of stone wall for about ten yards, stuck out seven feet from the side of the wall and poked just one foot above the water. An empty doorway with darkness beyond sat in the middle of the stone wall, and at the end that stuck out slightly beyond the waterfall, Ulik thought he could see a ladder of stone steps hacked into the carven wall. They looked relatively recent and would probably permit someone to descend, provided that the climber didn't slip, the steps didn't stop halfway down and that the ones further along weren't damaged or eroded into uselessness.


Tamora, Gan

Gan experienced the same as Tamora, once within the total darkness and silence, there was no turning back. It wasn't even until after he'd climbed in that he realized he'd left his weapons and armor outside in order to fit into the hole. Like with her, the walls soon began to constrict around him, not hurting him, but preventing any movement short of breathing.

They both soon lost all track of time in the total silence broken only by the echoes and the faint sounds of their clothing rubbing against the sides of the stone passage. It could have been days or years that they were spending underground, preserved by unknown forces.

Then, to their horror, the passage began to constrict even more. They expected the constant movement against it to rub the skin and flesh from them, but instead the cold stone just crushed. The pain was excruciating, but screams, yells and pleas for help would remain unheard, and it wasn't even possible to stop, even when they tried to hold their breath, some invisible force pushed them onwards.

The stone "sleeves" around their head, their torso and their limbs all slowly became narrower and narrower, getting longer as well, which was when the experience took a turn for the truly bizarre. It was painful, it was, in fact, agonizing, to feel themselves get stretched, but it was as though their bodies had become like mallable clay. They could not break or tear, but they could bend, oh how they could bend.

As their throats and mouths were deformed, their screams and pleas, which now came quite unbidden, from the primal part of them, turned into obscene moans and whistles. And soon even they ceased, as the last of their will began to flee. Pain and darkness was all that remained in their minds, and the only thing they desired was an end to it.


Anne, Bas, Balth

(OOC: Making the tiny assumption that the party goes around the cliffs clockwise, doesn't make much of a difference if they choose the other way around, the only thing that would make a difference would be if Bas intended for them to scale it and walk across the top.)

"This is no time to be asking questions! This is a time for action!" Snapped Balth at Gan, and seemed about to say more when the half-elf suddenly stepped into the hollow, his eyes boggled and he was dumbstruck for a few moments, beginning a few sentences and ending them abruptly, before turning to Bas while gripping his forehead as though he was afraid his head was about to drop off, "Y-yes, we should go..."

He and Anne picked up Gan and Tamora's equipment, distributing it between them so that Balth was carrying more, and then set off after Bas.

At first progress was smooth, since they could merely follow the tree-less, vine-less and bush-less belt around the cliff. Then it was as though nature itself turned against them, just as they believed they'd gotten about a quarter of the way to the other side, the skies began to darken with heavy rainclouds. They'd had to endure one brief rainstorm like the one near the lizardman village, but much milder, on their way to the cliffs, but this one looked far worse. The clouds were almost low enough to brush the treetops and lightning seemed to not only lance down to the ground below, every blast of thunder deafening, but to dance along the underside of the clouds.

Heavy winds seemed to come directly from above and pin them down, rain swept down not in droplets or in torrents, but in sheets, soaking their clothes and packs, dragging them to the ground from the extra weight.

The unfortunate trip was not yet at it's peak, however. It started as howls and snarls erupted from the trees on their left, just as the man-shaped holes in the cliffs on their right started to disappear, replaced with weird, twisted patterns of fissures. Tamora's erdlu, ordinarily extremely placid, turned towards the brush, hissing and spitting, flapping it's stubby wings and obviously preparing to defend itself with beak and claw.

Then they came. Charging from the forest like an army, a horde of animals. There were tigers, jaguars, several of the eight-legged Kirre that they had met before, large birds, huge insects and reptiles. Even huge Kluzd snakes, burrowing through the ground underneath them, burst forth at the edge of the trees and slithered across the wet grass. Their scale manes were fully erect, making them look almost like angry sunflowers. Except for the scales and fangs, of course.

Between the sudden darkness of the clouds blocking out the sun, the buffeting winds, the rain and the flashes of lightning, it was impossible to count how many creatures were charging at them, but there were dozens at the very least, with only the Gods knew how many more waiting in the vegetation.

Though it was obvious to anyone, Bas felt it in his bones: The animals were not attacking of their own free will and instinct, something was manipulating them.