Immersive Ink

| Turn 3.13.2 |
Sullivus, Arcus, and Tumbly quickly join Biratlan among the ensorcelled zealots, and between them they bloody their daggers. 'Tis a shame; the bare-chested zealots were such young, lithe specimens--particularly the women. But now they are only food for the worms!

Tumbly leads the turning out of the pockets of the dead, going about it oh so efficiently! Their clothing is minimal, and their possessions limited to daggers and snake- and reptile-motifs such as charms, thongs, nose-rings, toe-rings and so on. They have snake-skin purses o' course, and these contain | 2-12 silver pieces per zealot, the referee hasn't got 20d6 handy, so figures the mean result will do nicely. | a grand total of 70 sp in ten purses.

Now the black robed leader...

| ...was a 4th level anti-cleric who went down in a big hurry. There is an 8% chance of him possessing a magic (clerical) weapon or staff, and a 20% chance of him possessing magic armor or shield. Seeing that he clearly possessed no shield or armor, so the referee will allow a 20% chance of a miscellaneous magic item instead. d100=76, so no weapon or staff. d100=80, so no miscellaneous magic item either. |

...has a wicked looking curvy dagger with snake-head hilt, a purse containing 2d6=10 10 silver pieces, and also a long, parchment scroll that is dense with blotchy, mantis-claw runes of black ink.


| The combat being ended, the company will spend the remainder of turn 3.13 (8 minutes or so) resting and preparing to continue onward.

Now accepting orders for exploration turn 3.14... |

[pc Human,M-U]Sullivus[/pc] will take a moment to see if he can make heads or tails of whatever ritual the cultists were performing, and look for any altar or other focus for their prayers and chants.

"Can anyone here track? We might want to see if we can tell how the traffic was coming in and out of this room."

Whilst the rest of the group finish off the sleeping cultists and pillage their bodies Potts will make his way to the top of the ramp leading down, and once there will ask his companions for a little silence whilst he listens to see if anything from below may have heard the fighting and be making it's way up to investigate.

[pc Halfling,Fighter]Tumbly[/pc] points to the tunnel saying, "All that dancing and chanting...do you suppose they were summoning something from ....... below?"

[pc Human,M-U]Sullivus[/pc]

"We may want to search all of this level, that we're currently on, before we descend any deeper."

Biratlan wants to check the tunnel out but will go along with the group decision.

While our company of heroes are discussing what should be done next, an echo of a perplexing rattle issues up from the unknowable dark of the tunnel...

The burning torches flicker a moment as the cool air seems to be dragged deeper into that blackness with a barely audible wwhoooooaaa, as the rattle gradually slows to a more distinct clicking, then stops altogether. Nothing can be made out in that pitch dark, but a distinct, wet thud then issues up... followed by a slow but insistent shhhhick, shhhhick, shhhhick; as if a dead weight were being dragged over wet stones.