Pace out these halls of long-forgotten lineage, once familiar...
-The Ancestor
The expedition starts much the same way it progresses; the party discovers a collection of bits and baubles to aid in reconstruction, and a series of dangerous traps that leave the Musketeer, Julia, jumping at shadows. "Why don't one of you keep an eye on things up there?" she snipes.
You duck under a cobweb, last into the main atrium, where the rest of the party is silent and wary. It doesn't take you long to notice the plethora of smashed open sarcophagi and other detritus, but what unnerves is the missing bones, the way the wooden chips of old coffins being burst out away from the coffin, rather than crushed into them...
"This'll be a lot of trouble before long, I think," whispers Julia.
"Feeling a lot of negative energy, down here," says your sister.
You are about to give the order to continue on, but the local woodsman simply grunts and motions for you all to follow to the next room, where your party rests and sketches out the main tunnels. Two particularly large passages continue deeper into the ruin, but with no sense of the path ahead, you can only guess at the safest route to map out, taking a left.
Things seem fine, initially, with a few more interesting and valuable discoveries, but the party is forced to pause as a clattering noise can be heard around the bend, and a few skeletons rush forward at the light of the torch. Destroyed with impressive haste, they were dismissed as no true threat, and the idea cemented itself in your mind as, entering the next room, you fell upon the creatures and a few cultists before they even realized you were there.
The fighting was fierce, but for the most part easy, as the cultists were too far gone to have any semblance of strategy, and the bones simply fell to concentrated strikes. A few scrapes, a bruise here and there, but little else to show for a wild melee. You'd propped open a small lockbox with the sigil of the Lady Valoth on it, and found a bunch of useful writs and old,
old obligations.
Was that promisory for services rendered signed by King Edun
the First?
At about this point, things began to go downhill. Several large cave spiders had apparently made a home in the tunnels, and stumbling onto them was the worst thing that could have been done. Heart hammering, you watched as Emila was beset by spider after hungry, venomous spider, only barely surviving thanks to the wild-firing efforts of Julia, whipping out dozens of smaller pistols and firecrackers to force the creatures back long enough for you to bring her back from the brink. Webs fly and ichor sprays, and at one point you are nearly encased in a cocoon yourself, unable to aid the party as they finished the rest off.
Battered and frayed, the maps were still woefully unfinished, and you had to continue on. Stetton motioned to turn around, warning that the forward path held far more skeletons and cultists than the old backtrack route. All the same, it only took one last straw...
"WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST DO YOUR FUCKING JOB?!"
You had to close your eyes against the onslaught of screaming and one actual spell, your nerves raw and your breathing sharp and short. The cackling and clacking from the risen nobles was preternaturally unnerving and maddening, and Emila had fallen into a temper tantrum, disgusting ichors that looked vaguely like liquefied viscera coating her robes as she shouted extremely deadly invectives at anyone that so much as flinched.
All the while the party was out of position, and you were forced to fight in close with the power of the Light and Flame, which wouldn't have been a problem if the skeletons didn't keep gut-checking you with clubs and shields, forcing you to spend precious seconds sucking in air. The screaming from the back, where Emila stands, throws Stetton's aim, and you see Julia bite her tongue against a spiteful retort.
Emila, what is wrong with you...
All the while the cackling chuckles of the undead noble continue to grate against your ears... "Hell's Bells, just stand still and die!" cries Stetton, laying the thing low and earning a sweet respite from the endless chattering. Emila screams, and one of the remaining bones collapses into bone ash as her spell turns into a pillar of flame. You call on the light to aid you in destroying the last, and Julia takes a quick shot with her pistol to finish it off.
The silence is tense, your party's eyes are shifting back and forth... Even you can hardly breathe right any longer... Then Emila opens her
stupid, useless mouth.
"IDIOTS."
Julia cracks. "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST LEAVE US TO DIE?"
Your sanity boils into mist. "YOU JUST HAD TO SAY SOMETHING, DIDN'T YOU EMILA?!"
Stetton just sighs. You swear you can hear him mumbling something about betrayal or stupidity.
It is a long, unpleasant trip back to the hamlet, as the three of you shout each other down.
Emila, Julia, and June are Afflicted
Emila and June become Resolve level 1, gaining 10% to all resists
Emila became Catatonic
Julia became a Quick Shot
June became Sorrowful
MISSION SUCCESS
1 Uncommon Trinket, 2 Common Trinkets, 2200g, 22 resources
Uncommon-
Seer's Stone (15% Scouting, -1 SPD)
Common-
Bleed Charm (+20% Bleed Resist, -2 Dodge)
Blight Charm (+20% Blight Resist, -2 Dodge)
