Observing these grizzly signs, a hand of Gundrabu’s unconsciously rises to his chest, where it grasps the knotted bit of driftwood, its shape suggestive of an octopod, on a thong of sealskin circling his neck.

“Hm, wait here a bit, my lads,” Gundrabu says to his dogs. He is relieved that they are showing no sign of sensing eldritch death—at least not at this moment.

Gundrabu recites the Eight Dimensional Digressions on his holy symbol while he waits for the others to join.

Kondor leads the others to the campsite. On the way he acts a very brusk tour guide.

"Don't touch the belltower there, or you'll bring the dead. Don't touch that body" points at Emral, "he's my friend whom I avenge. The bodies in the black robes are just undead priests, probably from those graves, so whatever. Those bodies hanging from the ceiling there we haven't cut down, but they have yet to be animated to kill us. Also there is gold hidden upon the roof, too noisy to move, not enough wealth to bother moving, and of no use in battle. And that rope is the only way to get to it without sorcery, so another reason not to cut it. When we've ended the curse we'll bury them all. Emral was honorable that way, despite being a fire warlock, and he would have wanted it."

He points to the door inside the room.  "That is the entrance to the cursed place, we believe, where we'll do battle. The tight staircase has the smell of brine and rot, but we came back up when we heard your dogs outside. That's... pretty much everything I know. Any questions?"

While Kondor gives the tour, Gundrabu unhitches his dogs, allowing them to walk with freedom into the structure. Then he lifts the front of the sled and drags it, himself, through the doorway into the chamber [if that is allowed]. “Thank you for your ready information, swordsman. I expect I have many questions. My first is this: where might I find the actual sanctuary, the meeting hall of this church? I used up Kraken’s Ocean Dew on the Plain of Leng, and I seek to bless some more. I have the measure of water here in my skin, but I must perform the ritual on holy ground.”

Then he turns to the sorcerer, Igrest. “And I thank you for the gift of this blade, but I have questions for you, as well. This item is remarkably curious, and you mentioned how it might be cursed. Well, I hope to store holy water in the now-empty vial in the handle. Might there be some reason why I shouldn’t do that? Did the vial contain poison, and did it somehow wick up to saturate the blade?”

Ooc: Thanks for the welcome! I’m certainly enjoying being here! And thank you, Ref! I’ve speed-red most of this, and it’s certainly an immersive and evocative scenario.

Holy_Rage wrote:

Igrest does not offer any further commentary to the Ixian woman and once the Paralyser is stowed away, he follows Gundrabu in the open courtyard of the church. His eyes fall on the defiled graves and the scene of carnage slowly unfolding before them.

His wretched mouth curls into a snarling frown. "May Helios have mercy upon their cursed souls.", the mellow words in sharp contrast with his facial expression. He eyes the belfry ahead, but first parts the tent with his gaunt arm and peers inside the charred door frame.

Igrest holds his palm Candle forward peering into the burned out doorway's flapping tent as the barbarian gives his spiel...

There are 2 dead bodies suspended by a thick rope through the broken out hole in the ceiling, one hanging at around 6 ft. and the other above at 12 ft.
A few arrows and a broken sword lay in a pile beneath the bodies.

A pile of wolf carcasses has been dragged to the southern wall.

Books are stacked on the floor along the walls. There's an overturned mattress on the floor on your right hand side, revealing 3 cavities in the flagstones.
At its foot an overturned copper bowl and several sticks of incense.

The room smells of flowers, although you detect the aroma of brine leaking in from the opened doorway to the east.




 

Kondor shakes his head.  “This place has been cursed, the sanctuary the site of murder. A massacre. We found the bones of children in the hall where we entered. Until the curse is lifted, you will find nothing sacred here.”

Gundrabu looks at Tetranna with sudden, new-found interest. “I thank you,” he says.

“Swordsman,” he says to Kondor. “I understand how you might perceive such things, but holy ground, once blessed, does not lightly return to mere earth—or even become, as you say, cursed.”

Still, Gundrabu is uncertain. It may be that the sanctuary is defiled and that Kraken’s blessing are unable, now, to penetrate from where It resides in the Super-dimension to this mere bubble of reality. It used to be It could send Tentacles through any holy site—areas wherein dimensional walls are naturally thin—or Sea, whence most ensouled life on this disc arose.

[I’m not certain about time. I have a sense that it’s early “night,” that I should sleep soon. But my intention is to get to the sanctuary and try my spell before watering and feeding my dogs and bedding down for the night.

[If Kondor shows me the map, I have it: I swiped the most complete version from an earlier post.]

Iron Ranger wrote:

"Show him Emral's map, you brute fool," snaps Tetranna. "The man must appease his god."

“Silence! No one calls me fool! For even I know that one religions sacred site is not equal to priests of another. He would need to sanctify a desecrated location, and appease both his kraken and whatever the temple is currently claimed by.”

He thinks a beat, then, “But would this start a fight in the hall with the source of the curse? We would be on our terms, not walking into the unknown trap below. What do you say, cleric?”

Kondor shows the map.  “I know not of his order, but he mentioned the name Ur-Varlock and wore the tattoo sigils you can see upon his skin.  Sol and I arrived too late to help him, and he was dead. I wonder if the dead traveler you found was another adventurer we heard had come here, a brigand named Malak? He would have been there when Emral died of, I believe, poison. Emral was tied with his own whip after death, when we arrived. His corpse reanimated and nearly killed us, before the two of us took it down. The spirit told us that there was something or someone who is held below, but what he meant we’re not sure. The doorway is the last place unexplored. If you are going to the hall I will join you, if it means you will help us with avenging Emral and the people of the village murdered when the temple was set to burn and the children sealed inside.”

fireinthedust wrote:

Kondor shows the map. “I know not of his order, but he mentioned the name Ur-Varlock and wore the tattoo sigils you can see upon his skin. Sol and I arrived too late to help him, and he was dead. I wonder if the dead traveler you found was another adventurer we heard had come here, a brigand named Malak? He would have been there when Emral died of, I believe, poison. Emral was tied with his own whip after death, when we arrived. His corpse reanimated and nearly killed us, before the two of us took it down. The spirit told us that there was something or someone who is held below, but what he meant we’re not sure. The doorway is the last place unexplored. If you are going to the hall I will join you, if it means you will help us with avenging Emral and the people of the village murdered when the temple was set to burn and the children sealed inside.”

“Sol?” interrupts Gundrabu. He looks around. “Is there another here, or is this one, too, deceased?”

fireinthedust wrote:

Eirvit wrote:

“Sol?” interrupts Gundrabu. He looks around. “Is there another here, or is this one, too, deceased?”

Kondor points to the Montebank archer, who has been silent this entire time.

ooc:  Sorry, he's another player whose joining the game inspired me to start up after Emral died. Nice guy. Might be very busy in RL, so he's kind of faded into the background until he's ready to rejoin, iirc.

The cleric turns, but the dark, shadowy corner into which Kondor points is empty...