IC VIII Lost in the Flood

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia shrinks behind the eyes. Whether it's because of her inability to help or the realization of what they are or the worry that they're forced to report, she's not sure. Maybe it's all of them.

Until she sees the figure stretched out on the sheet of web and is abruptly back to her own nightmare, tangled and trapped and utterly helpless as the spiders creep closer...

Spoiler: Question

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before Natalia grabs a greatsword and starts swinging, could you please tell more about the scene?

[Athedia]

Mithril gestured upward with one hand and held the back of Natalia's shirt with the other. "We can't carry it, not to mention you said you would not get involved. The spell will run out soon and while I can protect our fall I don't want to sleep down there."

[Admiral]

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I was thinking of letting the party approach and study it before describing it further but it makes sense that I should describe it first.

As the party approaches the figure, it seems hard to determine what it is, for reasons that soon become clear. It looks like it was once an unclothed drow, but that it has been stitched into the web- strands intersect and cross almost every inch of his flesh. The limbs are shortened- the hands and feet seem to have been stripped of their flesh, and even the bones beneath appear to be somehow dissolving as they are woven into the silk itself. Within his upper arms it seems like the strands of the web merge into the veins such that they can hardly be distinguished.

Most intricate is the web threaded into the victim's head, which seems to form an intricate fractal pattern. Somehow the dark elf's eyes are the only part of his corpse still perfectly intact, each serving as a hub from which strands radiate outward through and around the skull. The drow is unquestionably dead, but the scream of pain and horror frozen into his web-strewn face forces the viewer to wonder how long he'd stayed alive.

[CWater]

Rhenner stares at the sight completely motionless. It lasts until his eyes start to hurt for not blinking. He instinctively rubs them, then looks at the figure in the web again. Looking away from the separated eyes was hard, but this..

It's strange though. Somehow he realizes that this scene is utterly horrible and nauseating, yet he doesn't feel any of the usual horror, disgust, anger or pain. He doesn't think he actually feels anything.

I'm not in a shock, am I? That would not be good...

[CoffeeIncluded]

Spoiler

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I was thinking of letting the party approach and study it before describing it further but it makes sense that I should describe it first.

As the party approaches the figure, it seems hard to determine what it is, for reasons that soon become clear. It looks like it was once an unclothed drow, but that it has been stitched into the web- strands intersect and cross almost every inch of his flesh. The limbs are shortened- the hands and feet seem to have been stripped of their flesh, and even the bones beneath appear to be somehow dissolving as they are woven into the silk itself. Within his upper arms it seems like the strands of the web merge into the veins such that they can hardly be distinguished.

Most intricate is the web threaded into the victim's head, which seems to form an intricate fractal pattern. Somehow the dark elf's eyes are the only part of his corpse still perfectly intact, each serving as a hub from which strands radiate outward through and around the skull. The drow is unquestionably dead, but the scream of pain and horror frozen into his web-strewn face forces the viewer to wonder how long he'd stayed alive.

No. Nonononono. That...they...they took...the eyes...the book...the eye are people they put them here and made them that and it was slow and how could anyone do this?!

With a low, pained, terrified groan Natalia spasms and throws up. fear and terror and nausea and growing rage at how can anyone do this?! well up inside her until, with a scream and vomit still on her chin, Natalia draws her weapon and rushes what's left of the drow.

Spoiler: Question

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so if I wanted to attack the eyes, what would be needed?

[Athedia]

No. Nonononono. That...they...they took...the eyes...the book...the eye are people they put them here and made them that and it was slow and how could anyone do this?!

With a low, pained, terrified groan Natalia spasms and throws up. fear and terror and nausea and growing rage at how can anyone do this?! well up inside her until, with a scream and vomit still on her chin, Natalia draws her weapon and rushes what's left of the drow.

Spoiler: Question

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so if I wanted to attack the eyes, what would be needed?

Mithril looked at the body and sighed. This religion was insane if this was the norm, but she couldn't help but wonder how the eyes were preserved. At Natalia's comment she launched through the air grabbing Natalia. "It's dead, DEAD. Don't make me take us out of the spell. I will do it Natalia. Let them go."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Please!" Natalia begs, struggling against Mithril's grasp. "Eyes aren't! One slice! End it!"

[Dusk Eclipse]

The flaming sword trembled in Stephan's hands, he thought he had seen every inch of depravity and lunacy the Drow were capable of while he was in the Shredder, but this was beyond his own nightmares, even beyond the reach of the head torturer's twisted concoctions.

"Natalia. ... he is gone"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia pants in Mithril's grasp, and it's not clear whether shes about to start crying or vomit again.

"But what if eyes...mind behind still live? If that, then...then..."

She looks down. What kind of maniac would do something like that? How did this...why would they allow this?

[Admiral]

From what little Mithril and Stephan can tell by studying the webbing, as well as the context, they guess it is unlikely to be arcane magic, though it may be divine. It's so unlike anything they've seen that they can't fathom how it might be crafted.

Spoiler

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Of course, Mithril could cast Detect Magic to learn a bit more if she were so inclined. Can make a Knowledge (Religion) check as well.

[Athedia]

Mithril shuddered as she considered doing something completely distasteful to her. First to check for magical traps she cast a basic spell, one that let her sense the magics in an area.

Spoiler

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K Religion: (1d20+10)[26]
Casting Detect Magic

The reason Mithril is so against this is that she fears that these eyes are early warning systems. Which I think so as well.

[Admiral]

Images and thoughts seem to float through Mithril's mind whose source she can't place... she recalls that Rhenner had mentioned the central obsession of the Church of Zyvonar being secrets, both discovering those of others and keeping their own. But another pair of phrases float through her mind... "the web that traps secrets..." "the Many Eyes see all..." that she cannot recall him sharing. She realizes that perhaps the crystal mask she wears grants her knowledge she couldn't otherwise know, even hidden secrets of the church.

Once Mithril casts her spell, she is quickly overcome with the strength of the magic in front of her. Outside of perhaps the process of guildmarking, it may be the most powerful spell she's yet encountered. As she focuses, she realizes that the magic centers at the eyes but courses all the way through the web.

Spoiler

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The aura is Strong (7th-9th level spell). Assuming she uses it for three rounds, she can make a Spellcraft check to attempt to determine its school.

[Athedia]

Images and thoughts seem to float through Mithril's mind whose source she can't place... she recalls that Rhenner had mentioned the central obsession of the Church of Zyvonar being secrets, both discovering those of others and keeping their own. But another pair of phrases float through her mind... "the web that traps secrets..." "the Many Eyes see all..." that she cannot recall him sharing. She realizes that perhaps the crystal mask she wears grants her knowledge she couldn't otherwise know, even hidden secrets of the church.

Once Mithril casts her spell, she is quickly overcome with the strength of the magic in front of her. Outside of perhaps the process of guildmarking, it may be the most powerful spell she's yet encountered. As she focuses, she realizes that the magic centers at the eyes but courses all the way through the web.

Spoiler

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The aura is Strong (7th-9th level spell). Assuming she uses it for three rounds, she can make a Spellcraft check to attempt to determine its school.

"Traps... see all.... Mithril whispered the phrases under her breath. Taking a deep breath she concentrated on the aura coming from the web

Spoiler

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Spellcraft: (1d20+17)[24]

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Traps?" Natalia yelps, looking around and triny to look at what's left of the drow without throwing up again. Are they really meant for surveillance?

Spoiler: Ok I doubt I can but

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Could Natalia make any rolls?

I'm sorry I'm making us lose so much time, everyone.

[Admiral]

Mithril carefully studies the auras coursing through the web. She hadn't studied an aura in practice since the illusion that hid the Mad Artificer's cave, and this is both a different kind of magic (that of the gods) and far more powerful than what she has command over. Were it not for her service to Boccob she might not recognize it at all... but any follower of the All-Seeing Eye recognizes the power of divination. Besides which it seems to share some features with her scrying spell, though barely recognizable in the many layers of complexity.

Studying the aura also gives the wizard a vague but potent sense of discomfort. she had read that while arcane magic was amoral in nature, powers granted by the gods could be aligned with good or evil powers. Sensing the aura of this magic leaves her with no doubt that it is corrupted to the core.

[Athedia]

Mithril carefully studies the auras coursing through the web. She hadn't studied an aura in practice since the illusion that hid the Mad Artificer's cave, and this is both a different kind of magic (that of the gods) and far more powerful than what she has command over. Were it not for her service to Boccob she might not recognize it at all... but any follower of the All-Seeing Eye recognizes the power of divination. Besides which it seems to share some features with her scrying spell, though barely recognizable in the many layers of complexity.

Studying the aura also gives the wizard a vague but potent sense of discomfort. she had read that while arcane magic was amoral in nature, powers granted by the gods could be aligned with good or evil powers. Sensing the aura of this magic leaves her with no doubt that it is corrupted to the core.

Mithril released Natalia and flew backward rapidly. "We need to get out NOW. They know, they are watching us." She could barely keep herself from flying out of the Crevice with all speed. That spell was more powerful than anything she could muster, and anything she would want to touch. But at the same time she fled because she was tempted to stay, to learn about this spell and how it worked.

[CoffeeIncluded]

They what? The eyes really are watching them the whole time? Natalia automatically puts her hands up over her face, her uncovered face with the gold-tinged skin and the broad nose and the brown eyes which never get quite as wide as her friends' that's free for anyone to see. Another spike of fear pushes up through everything she's feeling. "Isn't...more reason to end, to...kill?" The eyes, those damn eyes are everywhere. She looks around, feels her heart hammer in her chest as they close in. She needs to help but they're watching and they need to leave and is he really beyond help and how how how could they do this how can their society condone this "How can be allowed?!"

EDIT: But Mithril is terrified. Mithril is absolutely petrified and this is so, so rare to see Mithril so scared that it makes Natalia terrified as well. As bad as it is, whatever she found must have been even worse. She looks back to Mithril and silently asks, though it seems like the wizard already answered.

[Admiral]

Rhenner recalls from the religious texts he'd taken from the driders that the the church was obsessed with secrets, and that the collection of such secrets was the purpose of the Crevice and especially the Temples of the Unspoken that reside within it. The book had never mentioned the details of what went on within the valley.

Spoiler

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Described here)

He also recalls a word from the Arachnomicon that, even with his spell of comprehension, he couldn't translate, in the brief context of the fate of several heretics that were "put in Lolth's service at last." The prefix was familiar enough that he could barely interpret the word as roughly "silkification," and now he has little doubt what it means.

[CWater]

They what? The eyes really are watching them the whole time? Natalia automatically puts her hands up over her face, her uncovered face with the gold-tinged skin and the broad nose and the brown eyes which never get quite as wide as her friends' that's free for anyone to see. Another spike of fear pushes up through everything she's feeling. "Isn't...more reason to end, to...kill?"

"Could be, but think of the wires in your own traps. You wouldn't want to slash at them wildly, would you? Of course this is magic and as such very shaky comparison, but there is a point in what the wizard's saying, in being cautious." Rhenner's voice is strange.

The eyes, those damn eyes are everywhere. She looks around, feels her heart hammer in her chest as they close in. She needs to help but they're watching and they need to leave and is he really beyond help and how how how could they do this how can their society condone this "How can be allowed?!"

"Because the world is an insane place. It allows all kinds of things, as we can observe here for example, who do you think would prohibit them?"
His tone is way too light for what he's saying. His head feels light too.

The cleric looks at Mithril who is already flying away.
"I think we should follow her."

[CoffeeIncluded]

"Could be, but think of the wires in your own traps. You wouldn't want to slash at them wildly, would you? Of course this is magic and as such very shaky comparison, but there is a point in what the wizard's saying, in being cautious." Rhenner's voice is strange.

"...Ah..." It's not a word, more of a pained noise of acceptance.

"Because the world is an insane place. It allows all kinds of things, as we can observe here for example, who do you think would prohibit them?"
His tone is way too light for what he's saying. His head feels light too.

"Gods...they allow. It..." she chokes on her words for a moment. "Us."

The cleric looks at Mithril who is already flying away.
"I think we should follow her."

Natalia looks back at the eyes. But if Mithril's running, and Mithril is scared... She sighs, defeated, and wipes the vomit off her chin. They don't really have a choice, do they?

Spoiler

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I guess we're going?

[CWater]

"...Ah..." It's not a word, more of a pained noise of acceptance.



"Gods...they allow. It..." she chokes on her words for a moment. "Us."

" 'Allow' is an interesting choice of word. I would think it's more like..."

Or do I only want to think of it that way? Which of them is really worse in the end?

But this is no place for a philosophical discussion. If Natalia is still hesitating, Rhenner grabs her arm, attempting to pull her along.

[Admiral]

The party ascends rapidly through the webs. As they move farther through the Crevice the forest of webs stays just as thick, but what worries them is that they more frequently spot pairs of disembodied eyes embedded in the silk- each of which they now know represents a soul that died in agony.

After nearly a minute they come across a badly dessicated skeleton, apparently at a more advanced stage of its integration into the web, its perfect eyes staring dully into space. They swerve to avoid the disturbing sight, but soon reach a pair of bodies next each other, one a nearly fresh corpse and the other barely a skull and ribcage. As they keep ascending through the Crevice the presence of both eyes and skeletons becomes disturbingly more frequent until every traveler would give anything to be able to fly with his eyes shut.

Spoiler

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If you're wondering, in total you've seen about eight bodies in two minutes at varying stages of decay. Let me know if you do anything with them.

Spot and Listen checks all.

[CWater]

Rhenner glances around as they move forward. There doesn't seem to be an end to these tortured remains, is there.

Spoiler: Checks

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Spot: (1d20+7)[9]
Listen: (1d20+5)[11]

Guess he's not really keen on looking around the place. I don't blame him though. :J

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia's shaking at the sight of the corpses. There are so many, so many and they did this and they were allowed and probably told because who would think up something like that on their own? Who would listen to someone who told them to do this? Somebody who orders these things doesn't deserve to be in power! All those people...how could...

She couldn't do anything. But if the gods are allowing this, then they...they can't...

Natalia shakes and it's hard to tell whether she's sobbing or trying not to vomit again. Probably both.

Spoiler: Checks

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Spot: (d20+13)[24]
Listen: Take 10 for 23

[Dusk Eclipse]

Spoiler: Perception Rolls

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Spot (1d20+11)[29]
Listen (1d20+11)[19]
Not really in the mood to write up a description, sorry about that.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia can't tear her eyes away from the horrific sights, and she's paranoid enough to start at the slightest scuttle or breeze. She clings to Rhenner, taking shelter in his spell, and finally chokes out in a terrified whisper, "I thought church fought against. Why not fight?" She pauses, remembering the argument between Mithril and that dwarf. "Or...not know what's below?"

Spoiler

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why not talk while waiting?

[CWater]

Natalia can't tear her eyes away from the horrific sights, and she's paranoid enough to start at the slightest scuttle or breeze. She clings to Rhenner, taking shelter in his spell, and finally chokes out in a terrified whisper, "I thought church fought against. Why not fight?" She pauses, remembering the argument between Mithril and that dwarf. "Or...not know what's below?"

Spoiler

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why not talk while waiting?

"I don't know.." Rhenner starts with the emotionless voice he's been sporting for the past minutes, but Natalia's question seems to poke at something that causes a trace of feeling to return to his face. It is not a nice one though.

"I hope.. I hope they don't. That they really are honestly clueless." Now his voice carries a hint of barely contained fury.

[CoffeeIncluded]

"I don't know.." Rhenner starts with the emotionless voice he's been sporting for the past minutes, but Natalia's question seems to poke at something that causes a trace of feeling to return to his face. It is not a nice one though.

"I hope.. I hope they don't. That they really are honestly clueless." Now his voice carries a hint of barely contained fury.

"Yeah..." Natalia closes her eyes against another tormented face, "Hidden from truth, or truth hidden too. And gods..." she squirms uncomfortably, remembering traces (but not much else) of her drunken rant to Cuthbert after Miriam's death, but...but what if they're apathetic? Or what if they're not strong enough to counteract this and all the other evil and the evil deities they've encountered patrons of?

Gah. Natalia shakes her head. It's also that the people are doing this, and why? Because they think it's what their deity wants? Because it's ordered? "Not reason enough," she mutters to herself, though because the rest of her thoughts stayed in her head the context isn't quite clear.

[Admiral]

As they rise through the webs and past the horrifying inhabitants, Natalia hears what at first sounds like a distant wind, but soon can be distinguished as the sound of faint, incredibly labored breathing.

Stephan is the only one to notice that one of the apparent corpses, about fifteen yards away through the webs, has a chest that is just barely rising and falling.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia stills, stopping in her tracks as her eyes go wide. "Breath," she whispers. "Pained living breath!" she shouts, looking around wildly for the source of the sound.

Spoiler: Heh

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I had a feeling we'd find a live one. This should be interesting.

How thick are the webs here? Can we get to the person easily?