ENTRANCE - CLEARING
The clearing is eerily silent and still. No chanting, no incomprehensible thrum of voices, no cries to a distant god. Only curiously thin trees, broken stones, and thick underbrush scattered with various painted artifacts. As the adventuring party approaches, these artifacts become more numerous and strange; some of them look like cracked drinking jugs, others like long, half-rotted staves, others are blunt knives, wooden figurines in a vaguely humanoid shape, and so forth. Most of them are in states of decay, but many of them are encrusted with tiny precious gems--rubies and diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. All of them are smeared with the symbol that Rin described to the network, and all of them emanate a power that makes even those resistant to magic feel uneasy.
This aura acts more profoundly on the surrounding flora and fauna as everyone draws closer to the ruins entrance. The underbrush comes alive: green tendrils snake out to grab at your ankles, to lash your wrists. Critters become hostile, launching themselves at you with reckless abandon. The squirrels are extremely upset. But it's all small fry, and the aura mostly just makes even those with frail constitutions feel a little queasy. No big deal, right? Press on.
FIRST FLOOR - LIBRARY
A crumbled threshold leads down, down, down into the dark. You'll need some light or someone with night vision to safely descend the first set of steps, which are uneven and falling apart. Try not to stumble to your death--or at least, a broken ankle. At the bottom of the steps, there's a poorly kept dirt floor strewn with unidentifiable debris. Heaps of garbage, mysterious stains, bits of old furniture. A few wall sconces light the area, and walking further in reveals a wrecked library. Books are in wobbly stacks, tossed everywhere, their pages ripped out and covered with gibberish scrawling. INEVITABLE INEVITABLE INEVITABLE is written legibly across many of the otherwise ruined pages.
As you walk forward, you see the exit to another staircase ahead--and a group of about half a dozen people in heavy robes, milling about the remains of the library. Muttering to themselves, scratching their necks, chuckling. Their cowls cover their faces, and they don't notice you until you make a sound--and then, suddenly, all eyes are on you.
The cultists attack, using mostly hand-to-hand combat techniques; they also wield long, slender daggers, the kind that fit easily through someone's ribs. But if they catch you staring, they'll stare right back, eyes suddenly glowing a burning green. These are their Entropy Eyes, a spell that causes a number of randomized, negative effects, ranging from mere disorientation to outright--albeit temporary--madness. Those with strong wills can resist the Entropy Eyes; others will find themselves confused, unaccountably hostile, and terribly unsteady on their feet. Everyone will hear whispers in the back of their heads, whispers that fill their guts with dread. The aura felt at the entrance thickens, intensifying symptoms of nausea and dizziness.
Still time to turn back.
SECOND FLOOR - LABORATORY
The laboratory reeks. It's a mix of sour and sweet, of blood and rust, of soil and decay. Shattered beakers are strewn everywhere, as are cages--some empty, some with a reddish muck oozing from between the bars. Unidentifiable piles are scattered throughout; close inspection suggests limbs, teeth, hair. There's a table against one wall, and someone's painted WE ARE SO PARCHED WE ARE SO PARCHED just above a line of flasks, each filled somewhat with a different colored liquid. These liquids can have a variety of effects on their own or mixed together--explosive, burning, mind-addling, gas-producing, etc. They are generally not benign, though.
The only exit is a door covered in esoteric symbols; in its center is not a knob, but a small face with an open jaw and many rows of teeth. The door is painted, too, with the phrase: WE ARE SO HUNGRY WE ARE SO HUNGRY. The mouth is just big enough for a flask, a human hand, or something else of similar size.
And, besides all that, there are the dolls. These are humanoid patchworks, ranging from 5' to 6', each made from assorted parts. They freewheel towards anyone who enters, whimpering; cackling. Some of them mistake you for a loved one, but their embrace is choking; their nails are red-stained claws. Ignoring them will send them into a wailing frenzy, so it's best just to dispatch them as fast as you can.
Once done, you have to decide how to get past that door. It will open for any of the following:
Feeding it a potion mixed from the table
Feeding it part of a doll
Feeding it your own blood/skin/etc
Choice A causes a soft murmuring to run through the back of your mind, something that makes you feel a vague, discomfiting dread, but it's easily ignored.
Choice B causes the same murmuring, accompanied by a savage satisfaction, a feeling of selfish triumph. If you're weak to such suggestion, your paranoia towards your teammates increases slightly--you feel they are there to take something from you, for whatever reason.
Choice C causes a feeling of supreme contentment ... followed by awful, gut-churning terror. Something has you. Something is with you.
Whatever you choose, the door leads to the final descent. Down, down, down into darkness, into a spacious, chilly cave, and here you find ...
BOTTOM FLOOR - CAVERN OF WORSHIP
... the Ascended. These people--creatures, really--turn in unison when a new presence breaches the sanctum. They are horrifying to behold: cultists who have gone through the final rituals of their doctrine, transformed from their previous selves into avatars of suffering and terror. They have no discernible face nor features; instead, their heads are stuck through all over with needles, and blood drips constantly from the wounds. Their bodies are emaciated, their fingers gnarled and full of claws. And, most relevant to you: they're fast. They pull the needles from their heads and lunge, aiming to pierce vital organs--but they'll take whatever they can get, really. When struck, they screech out an unearthly wail that rattles your bones and chills your steps. The floor writhes beneath you as you engage them; the rock shifts and softens, becoming so many squirming, grasping tentacles. These are an illusion, but a powerful one--they will grab you and toss you, but a solid strike to their bases will send them away.
Once you've dealt with the Ascended, you find yourself in front of an enormous statue. Its shape is undefinable, for the most part: it shifts between many forms as you gaze upon it. For a moment it's something Lovecraftian, some many-mouthed beast come to devour the world. Then it's a raven, ominous and silent. Then, a humanoid figure, indeterminate and beautiful, dressed in flowing robes and reaching out to you like a friend, lips parted in a vicious smile. The only stable part of the statue is its center: an enormous, oval shaped ruby shot through with veins of gold. The ruby pulses as though alive, and a pale mist swirls in its center, agitated and alive.
There are words inscribed on a plinth in front of the statue:
In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.
The aura now is the thickest it's ever been. No matter your victories, you feel sick, even as the glittering jewel draws your eye. At best, you just want to leave. At worst, you want to strangle everyone around you, then leave. And maybe you want a piece of that jewel, too? It's up to you.
 
OOC
If you take any treasure/books/etc from this place, you will find they are both very valuable and very dangerous. The longer they are in a character's possession, the more likely they are to eventually cause profoundly negative side effects (dampening of altruism/compassion/empathy, encouragement of anger/jealousy/paranoia/etc). This is especially so for pieces of the jewel, which cannot be kept for more than a day without doing serious damage to one's emotional state.
That said, in general feel free to decide how deeply the magic/horror of this place will affect any individual character--some people are stronger than others, but even strong people can have a good day (and vice versa). Also, there wasn't really any sign-up for this! Feel free to just make up a reason for the character to be here, whether or not they spoke with Rin. It's NBD.
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riverviewlogs2017-10-28 08:25 pm
taakooooo ☂ ota
[Things that are bad ideas: stealing the gems out of the decaying artifacts littering the clearing.
Things that Taako is doing anyway: stealing the gems out of the decaying artifacts littering the clearing.
Things that someone should probably do: stop him.]
library
[There's nothing cool to steal in the library, but there are dipshits to kill, and Taako's almost as good at that as he is at theft. It's the reason he's kept the umbra staff close at hand; as soon as the first cultist draws a knife, a fireball shoots from the staff, burning them up. If anyone had qualms about murder, they probably should've spoken up before now, because there's zero hesitation when Taako raises the staff a second time.
And then he makes the mistake of locking eyes with another cultist; the whispers seem to get louder and he feels dizzy, almost losing his balance before he forces himself to close his eyes and focus. He's better than cheap tricks.]
Heads up, don't look too closely at these thugs if you don't want 'em messing with you.
library part 2
[Taako might call himself a simple idiot wizard, but at the end of the day he was one of only seven arcanists chosen for an incredibly exclusive and important mission, and he wasn't picked for his looks (as great as they are). He was chosen because he's actually pretty fucking good at magic, and right now he's using that to pour over the books available, once the cultists are all dead.]
None of this makes any sense, were they drunk when they wrote these spells...?
[He's half-muttering to himself as he draws a finger across a page, trying to decipher some meaning out of it.
He might end up taking a few of those books with him, just to investigate on his own time.]
ascended
[These motherfuckers are fast, and there's only so much Taako can do with spells when they keep missing the damn creatures and honestly, he'd really like them to die, because they're creepy as shit. All of this is creepy as shit and it's starting to get under his skin even with his resistance to the sort of magic that gets into people's heads. He wants to tear into something until the whispers stop.
So Taako the elf wizard takes his leave of the fight, to be replaced by Taako the tiger, who finds this whole situation a lot easier to deal with.
There are teeth to snap into the necks of the ascended and claws to rake into their chests and muscle that's barely bothered by the thin needles and it's satisfying in a way that throwing a spell from a distance really isn't. It satisfies something in him that he's sure is an effect of this place, but he's not worried about losing control. Because despite the ferocity, he's not a threat to the rest of the party.
If anything, he's there in case anyone needs a hand.]
library!
(Lucretia is actually a little afraid of what lies underneath of the hoods. The way all of them are grouped like that with their robes on is uncomfortably, eerily familiar, and she wouldn't put it past this place to start showing her something that she doesn't want to see. Or hear, for that matter. The whispering is a low, constant murmur in the back of her mind and it's proving frustrating to concentrate.
Taako is at her back, killing without abandon. Lucretia is incapacitating as best she can, even though she's aware that she's simply presenting Taako with easier targets to cut down.)
If we keep one- on your left- alive, do you think we could question them or–
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When Lucretia warns him, he doesn't even look that way before casting magic missile, sending the three streaks of light towards his left.]
I think they're like, pretty past questioning, but you're not killing 'en anyway so we might as well.
[There's no judgement in the way he says that, he knows she doesn't kill as easily as he does.]
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I see your point.
(Chain lightening drops three at once, and Lucretia glances uncomfortably away from their upturned faces.)
New theory: maybe the whispering will stop if we get them all.
no subject
[He doesn't actually know if it's the cultists who are causing the whispering, but it can't hurt to kill them either way. So he takes stock of the scene around them and makes a quick decision.]
Five o'clock, I'm gonna cast levitate and you hit 'em once they're at the ceiling.
[And with a flick of the umbra staff, up they go.]
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(The more insistent the whispering gets the closer Lucretia comes to stopping what she's doing and listening, and she's pretty sure that would be a horrible idea. Currently she's distracting herself from that by keeping herself constantly moving: shifting her weight from foot to foot, tapping her fingers against her palms, concentrating on the rhythm of her breathing.
When Taako lifts the cultists up she opens fire with sunbeam and the room illuminates in a wash of warm light. The beam makes short work of them, blinding those it doesn't kill, but Lucretia holds onto the mote of the spell in her hand for the rest of its duration anyway. The extra light is helping with her growing unease.)
Two left– (she casts hold person on them, pulling them to a standstill for Taako to finish off.)
no subject
He's not sure if it's the whispers that are saying that, though.]
I got 'em.
[He keeps it simple; melf's acid arrow strikes one of them, and the splash off from the spell hits the other, killing them both.]
no subject
(It is actually kind of sick. Lucretia feels weird and uncomfortable as the remaining two cultists drop heavily to the floor, leaving them standing amidst bodies. Sunbeam slowly dims in the palm of her hand, and then goes out. She had been hoping for silence, but the whispering continues, a dull murmur in the back of her mind.)
Wishful thinking, (she sighs, and holds a hand out automatically to Taako for a high-five,) got it done, though.
oh no i used the same icon twice in a row
Remind me why we never had a divination expert on the team?
[It'd be useful right now.]
i forgive you
Because we poured all our points into cool looking offensive magic?
thank u for ur mercy
but you're on strike two so watch it
i love u tho :(
... i will take this into consideration
tyty
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library
[ This is far from X’rhun’s first run-in with cultists, but they all seem to have different sorts of nasty tricks up their sleeves. It’s like a grab bag of dark magic and crazy, you never know what sort of twisted result you’ll get.
But, given that this sort of thing is old hat for him, he has no qualms with slaying the men attacking them. As one cultist sets his sights on the red mage, X’rhun gives a wave of his hand, calling half a dozen swords of light into being. Two of them zip forward, and while the cultist manages to bat one away with his knife, he isn’t quite fast enough to counter the second, which pieces his chest and then dissipates, leaving him to fall. The four remaining swords stay with X’rhun, hanging menacingly over the red mage’s head.
Of course, with those swords, he’s shining like a beacon in the dim space, and he is definitely attracting attention.
Stupid flashy red mage. ]
no subject
Are you sure you're not a cleric?
[Because that looks like a cleric spell.]
no subject
Still a red mage, last I checked.
[ As if he’s ever been anything else.
His beacons are doing a good job of attracting attention, and four of the cultists group up to make the advance. That seems to be what X’rhun was hoping for, because he spreads his arms and the remaining four swords zip forward to surround the cultists. The swords drive themselves into the ground, pillars of white light erupting from each. Three of the cultists are fully caught in the blast, and topple over, smoking. One manages to escape the worst of it and only comes away a little singed, but very angry. ]
Tsk. My aim must be off.
[ But here comes the cultist, charging them both. ]
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But he's more than happy to take a backseat role and save his spell slots.]
That is some showy as shit magic, I'm into it.
[Taako, for his part, keeps it simple with scorching ray, sending three bolts of fire at the cultists; one is dodged, but the other strike the cultist in the chest, sending him down.]
They really should get some like, armor or something, if they're not any good at magic.
no subject
But there are still cultists to fight, so X'rhun straightens and snaps the ornate crystal that usually hangs from his hip onto the hilt of his rapier. He wields the blade like a mage's staff, point down with the crystal on top.
He concentrates for a second or two, the crystal pulsing with red-violet light, before a bolt of red energy shoots out, striking yet another of the cultists. ]
Mayhap they should, but I wouldn't put much faith in their ability to reason.
[ This, as a bolt of lightning lances from X'rhun's crystal to finish the cultist off. ]
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Are you telling me you think the creepy cult members aren't gonna be interested in practical advice vis-à-vis armor?
[He's being sarcastic.]
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Considering some elder thing has no doubt wriggled its way into their brains, I have my doubts. You are welcome to try, however.
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[Taako isn't actually going to try to have a serious discussion about armor, which is made pretty clear when another cult member appears and Taako snaps his fingers, turning them into a lizard.
Nailed it.]
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when ya fuck up ur html
happens to the best of us
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ascended
It's weird to have a laughing spectre and a tiger taking down shit together, but at least it took her mind off the creepy shit in this place for a while. Everyone else just had to deal.
When the last needle dude is down, she goes to scritch Taako behind an ear with mage hand. ]
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Once it's all said and done and he's getting mage hand scritches, he almost thinks this is all over and they can head home, but then the aura of the statue kicks up a notch as it shifts and the tiget growls, low and warning.
He could shift back, but that's some bad juju over there and he wants to be ready in case there's another fight.]
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...no matter how much the general feeling of this place made her want to 'nuke it from orbit', as the internet said.
Then the fighting fun is over, and all that is left is this uncomfortable, dangerous feeling from the eldritch shit going on with that statue. She frowns, floating a little bit closer. ]
If this is what we came for, I wanna just blow it up. Right?
[She glances back at her furry brother.]
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He drops the spell, shifting back to his normal elf-self, though some of the anger linger.]
Fuck that's some bad shit, I've got some serious goosebumps.
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[Heeeey.
Jokes aside, though, she lights fires in her hand, swirling it nervously as she watches the statue. This was big bad wrong and she just wants to leave. Adventure over, time to get home and get drunk and forget about this mess.]
I can probably explode some of the pillars and make this whole room collapse. Just a thought.
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Uh, lemme get back to you on that one, Lulu.
[Rin looks a little beat up, a little shaky, and Taako is worried. He brushes his hand through Lup's ghostly sleeve, the equivalent of giving her hand a squeeze.]
Stay outta trouble, I'm gonna go talk to my dude.
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She keeps an eye on her brother and Rin, though. Just in case.]