Under a Dark Sun(2nd Ed. AD&D)

[PurpleXVI]

Lorath, Ulik, Evon

Lorath easily walked by Ulik and Evon, who both seemed momentarily awestruck by their new location, and crossed the roof to the nearest edge.

Looking straight down, he could see that the three of them were atop an unadorned stone building, about seven floors up. The entire building seemed to be surrounded by a wide, deep moat, full of murky water and with reeds growing around the edges. Beyond the moat was a short expanse of grass, it looked like no one hand tended to it for a while, and then another wall, square like the building and moat it surrounded, with a tower at each corner.

Walking around the battlement, Lorath saw that there was only one way through the outer wall, a tall, steel porticullis set in the middle of one of the four faces. Directly opposite from it was the only apparent exit from the keep, a drawbridge that was currently retracted.

Beyond the outer wall... Was a city. It sprawled far in all directions and looked chaotic, built without any apparent planning or scheme. Short and tall buildings of wood and stone, interspersed here and there by parks and small ponds, seemed dotted around without any purpose at all. It also seemed completely deserted. No smoke was rising from chimneys, there was no sound of anyone at work, no barking dogs. Only the wind and the occasional creaking weatherwane could be heard.

The city was also surrounded by a wall, but it was too far away for even Lorath's elven eyes to see what laid beyond it.


Bas, Tamora, Anne, Balth

The rest of the day went by quietly, travelling along the river continued to be easy and unobstructed compared to carving a path through the jungle. Occasionally something moved in the vegetation on the other side of the water, but it either never came out of the greenery or turned out to be some animal they'd seen before most of the time. Kirre often seemed to come down to drink from the river, and once an entire kank herd was sipping from the water when they walked by, even the bloated queen kank, which Balth pointed out.

As night fell, however, it was obvious that something was out of place. Nights in the jungle had never been excessively quiet before, there was always the faint cry of some night animal, or birds squawking even at midnight, but as they made camp that night, in a small clearing by the side of the river, it was eerily silent. Only the insects didn't seem affected by the mood, and were as annoying as ever.

"I think we need to prepare for something tonight," said Balth, as he examined the fruit from one of the trees near the center of the clearing, it was brown as the tree's bark, and seemed to have the size, shape and weight of a softball, "Whatever we met briefly back when we first reached the river seems to have taken a liking to us." The elf tried one of the fruits, and his facial expression seemed to confirm that the fruits also tasted like softballs.

He dismissively bowled the fruit across the clearing, and Tamora's erdlu chased after it, snatching it up with glee, then swallowing it in a single gulp.

[Man Who Fights Like Woman]

Obviously there was a lot to explore in this place. The town, intact though uninhabited, would definitely warrant an extensive survey. For the moment though, he wondered what else was inside this fortress. He went down through the fortress, looking at what they had just stumbled upon, and decided whether it would be worth claiming.

[Armen]

Tamora

Tamora looked curiously at Balth following his announcement. She straightened up and walled over to him. “Balth,” she said, “I need to speak with you”. She walked them over to where Ernie was rooting around looking for another fruit. The bird looked up as she approached but she spread open her hand indicating its emptiness and gave him a consoling rub on the back of his neck. She looked up at Balth. She was prepared to believe that the local elf would be better attuned to the rhythms of this place than her but his warning seemed of a different quality. “That was quite a dramatic announcement back there. I appreciate your warning but I need to know what you know, what you think is going to happen and how you know it.” She studied Balth to gauge his reaction and realised that she had spoken a little too solemnly. She smiled. “I’m sorry. My responsibility for Bas and Anne weighs heavier as we get closer to the lake. Please tell me anything you can that might help.”

(OOC: assuming Balth replies)

She nodded her thanks then fixed the sun runner’s eyes with her own. “I also need to know if you intend to stay. I know you have said you feel indebted to us but I do not hold you to that. Your company and advice has already matched the little we did and Bas told me of your willingness to attack the pack of creatures that threatened them at the cliffs. If we are attacked I would be pleased to have you beside us but as a friend not through a sense of obligation. If you wish to leave and return to your people while you can I would accept that and wish you well.”

[dplax]

Anne

Balth's announcement, though it came from almost nowhere, did not surprise her greatly. She had come to expect strange statements at strange times from the elf.

The silence was almost haunting. Anne loosened her dagger in its sheaf, before turning to Bas.

"I'd be happy to take first watch," she said to him.

[Kazilan]

Bas nodded to Anne and took a seat near the river, relaxing his body and breathing deeply. The druid closed his eyes and reached out with his perceptions, trying to contact the spirit of the place as he had done in the clearing. His previous success bolstered his confidence, despite the strangeness of the area.

[PurpleXVI]

Ulik, Lorath, Evon

As Lorath descended, no one leapt out at him to demand an explanation for his sudden presence, and no monsters attempted to make a dinner of him. The building was entirely devoid of life except for the three adventurers.

The elf passed though many empty rooms on the top floors, all seemingly normal except for the lack of people, before he found anything interesting. Three floors down, he began finding bones. No one seemed to have been felled by violence, instead undamaged skeletons laid in their beds, or in the case of what had once been servants' quarters, on their cots, as though they had died peacefully in their sleep.

He found no weapons and no sign that magic had been used against them, but as he examined the grisly scenes, he did stumble across one re-occuring figures. Small chalk statues that had been concealed in various niches and under beds, even a few that had been stashed under pillows. They looked vaguely humanoid, like a teardrop with stubby arms and legs, and a variety of branch-like protrusions from the top. The only decoration was a line of three coloured circles down one side, red, yellow and green from top to bottom. Some of the statues were surprisingly well-made, even despite the brittle material used, while others looked like they had ben made in a hurry and had already lost several limbs.

There seemed to be no explanation for them.

Venturing further down, he found more of the statues, and more of the skeletons, but no signs of violence until he reached the throne room. It had obviously once been a splendid chamber, full of paintings and tapestries, but when Lorath got there it was only ashes. Scorch-marks covered the walls and only a few remaining frames or shreds of cloth on the wall showed that it had once been something better. Buried in the thick layer of black ash on the floor were a vast number of bones. They had been scattered about, making it hard to determine anything, but the few skeletons he found intact did not appear to have died in peace.

The only unscorched body was on the throne, a skeleton held together in a sitting position by it's regal-looking dark blue robes, decorated with waves and creatures fo the sea. A long dagger had been thrust between it's ribs piercing the location where a human's heart would be.

Lorath eventually reached the ground floor and found no more fire damage, only a repeat of the scene on the upper levels whereever he went. Searching the armory, he found it raided, not a single suit of armor or weapon remained. Aside from the dagger in the regal corpse's chest, he hadn't found any weapons on any of the corpses, either. Nor any armor, all had been wearing only clothes.

When he came upon the kitchens, he was struck by a strong smell of rot which he easily pinpointed as being spoiled food. Barrels of fruit and racks of unsalted meat were mouldering and fermenting in almost every chamber he searched, though he did come across a few still-edible things, mostly dried fruit and smoked or salted meat.

Eventually, the elf made his way to the front gate, only to find it an impassable barrier. The mechanism which held the drawbridge in place had been jammed, and the chains which allowed the inner porticullis to be raised had been broken. It looked like it would take a while for even a skilled craftsman to fix, either that or a lot of brute force.


Anne, Bas, Tamora, Balth

Balth gave Tamora a disdainful look, "I have come to expect this thing from Anne, but you, too, Tamora?" He sighed, "You both seem to have a talent for confusing reasoning with secret knowledge. To me, it's been obvious that something's been following us. Something, or possibly someone, has been moving around in the bushes on the other side of the river all day, and what about that halfling? It's entirely possible that I'm wrong, but I don't think we should take any chances. I know that I'm not going to."

He then listened patiently as she spoke again, "I still have not repaid my debt, and even if I had, I would stay with you, I'm finding myself curious about you three and your purpose here. Besides, if I was to leave, I would be the first victim if something is truly after us, even animals know that lone prey is easier to bring down than a herd. I'm staying, at least until it's sure that we're not being hunted."

Bas could find little to commune with in the clearing, it seemed that the spirit of the area had not been contacted in a long time and was slumbering deeply. All he received was a single image, a view of himself from the perspective of an animal on the other side of the river, out of sight behind the foliage.

The druid also got an impression of the creature's mind, it was most definitely a predator, and not just any predator, but a pack hunter.

Even though Anne was more a person of the city than of the forest, or at least not as attuned to nature as someone like Bas or Tamora, she had exceptionally sharp hearing in any circumstance. With the surrounding lands being suddenly silent she was not forced to tune out all the sounds that would normally have distracted her, and this let her hear a few things that none of the others did, as they spoke at length, or in the case of Bas, settled down to meditate.

From the upper branches of some of the trees at the edge of the clearing, specifically ones near the river, she heard creaking that could only have been the product of something heavy setting all it's weight down on the wood.

[Armen]

Tamora

Tamora looked genuinely confused at Balth’s outburst. “Balth,” she said, “I meant no offence. I only . . .” She stopped and shook her head as if to herself. There seemed little point carrying on. She sometimes felt like she’d talked more in the last few weeks than she had in the last few years and it had seldom done her any good. And besides, it was unlikely that she would have been able to arrange a co-ordinated strategy with the mercurial Sun Runner in any case.

He expression became impassive and she nodded in response to Balth’s explanation of his intentions. She walked back to Bas and Anne, stringing her bow as she went, and took up a position near the edge of the river.

[ 03-13-2007, 03:17 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[dplax]

Anne

Anne stood up and walked over to Bas. She gently shook his shoulder to bring him from his meditation.

"Sorry to disturb you, but we have a problem."

Just then Tamora came back. Anne waved at her to get her attention. She pointed to the trees next to the river.

"Something or someone is in the trees at the edge of the clearing. We have to prepare for trouble during the night, I think."

[ 03-15-2007, 05:36 AM: Message edited by: dplax ]

[Kazilan]

Bas shook his head and rose slowly to his feet.

"I too detected the presence of an animal watching us. In the brief glimpse I received of its mind, I learned it is a pack hunter. Perhaps we should be on the lookout for more of whatever it is, trying to sneak up on us. This one could be a decoy to distract us from the real threat."

[Armen]

Tamora

“Maybe if they are simple animals they will be reluctant to attack but we should prepare for it.” She looked around the clearing. “This place is far from ideal but I fear we would be worse off in the trees so we’ll just have to do the best we can. Anne, if the large stone dagger I took from the halfling would suit you as a weapon feel free to use it.”

Turning in a full circle she mentally switched her sight to infravision and scanned the tree line, concentrating on the places Bas and Anne had indicated but also looking everywhere else from the ground to the tops of the trees.