Immersive Ink

waysoftheearth wrote:
Guntrum cautiously retrieves the fell blade, before the company troop up the stair and back into the sepulcher proper.

Compared to the cold tomb below, it is positively warm here, despite it being normally cool for a tomb...

The opening mechanism for the front door -- a thick cylinder of stone that rises or falls several inches in accordance with a lever -- appears to be... untampered with.

ehiker133 wrote:
Desmond chances a deep breath and a slight sigh of relief.

"We were wholly unprepared for that expedition..."

sulldawga wrote:
Dorgan nods at his two-headed companion in agreement.

"We'll need a lot more holy water before I'll go back down there. Let's hope them coins are worth a couple a' flasks..."

The dwarf scratches his beard.

"And ta think we ain't even seen the vampeer yet."

coffee wrote:
Dieter keeps especially close watch to the rear. If anything is going to attack us, it'll be now.

doctorx wrote:
Josiane looks back at the rest of the party.

"If everyone is ready..?"

She opens the tomb doors and flattens against the side wall, shield up, wary of arrows.

waysoftheearth wrote:
Despite all precautions being taken... nothing untoward happens when the tomb door opens. Outside, the cemetery is all still and quiet. The late afternoon seems dazzlingly bright despite there being only an hour or so left in the day, and the breath of air from without is amazingly refreshing on your weary faces...

After several moments of waiting it is apparent that there is nobody laying in ambush... at least no one wont to attack at the first opportunity.

What now?

ehiker133 wrote:
Desmond whispers, "By the gods... let's get out of this accursed place and re-group! I don't want to go back down there until I'm wearing a tunic soaked in holy water!"

mushgnome wrote:
"I'm hungry enough to sample goblin cooking," groans a visibly exhausted Highbough.

doctorx wrote:
"Out of here," breathes Josiane; "But carefully. Dorgan, will you please seal this tomb behind us? What lies within must remain there..."

She leads the company to the cemetery gates, though keeping an eye out all the while for anything amiss. If they reach the gates unopposed, she takes a moment to linger there, head bowed, leaning on her sword.

"Friend Wibert. Sir Pelenwin. Pray pardon us that we leave without you. We shall return, and we shall free you from the curse that torments you. By Almighty Thuul I, Josiane the Guided, so swear".

She sings the words of an ancient hymn of passing softly before raising her head and opening her eyes, now red-rimmed and watering.

"Please let us go," she whispers to the others.

tonneau wrote:
"Lead on my dear", says Gustave as Josiane crests the stairs and steps into the light, "This has been a sojourn to forget."

"I am fatigued, hungry and will not sleep this night for what I have seen" he continues, prodding the black scar in his breastplate, "and I rue the loss of our little chef...and...the other guy of course..."

"Let us make haste to our abode, and hope a hot bath can be manufactured by those green-skinned bobkins that seem to inhabit it. I dare say our man Olaf could do with some warming", he finishes, raising a brow at Olafs deathly pallor in the afternoon light.