The ghost crosses his arms and floats in front of Durin to "block" his passage.
"Not really, of course. That disguise vould not have vorked even if all ov us had not seen you come een alveady."
One gets the impression that the phantom is rolling his eyes, though the faded pits on his dark face are impossible to see clearly. He waves a hand dismissively.
"Go avay."
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Astrana sigh, why did she get all the good ideas when it was already too late?
Ah well, it was a worth a try. The illusion had a second effect after all which would serve for her own twisted amusement at least.
She was surprised at the phantom wasn't attacking them right away though. "I suggested you go away, unless you like to join the choir invisible and not only the... partly visible one." As far as threats went, it wasn't her best one.
"Your former Master is dead. Once we destroy his coffin, we have no further business here. We have no quarrel with you unless you start one." Vino says.
The man's reaction is hard to gauge, but he seems to be grinning mockingly. The sword doesn't bother him, though it does indeed touch him with its enchantment.
"Former master? Vhat nonsense do you speak of? I am servant to none, especially not zat vampire Rot. He is von oof my subjects, though, so I'm afraid I can't allow you to destroy him. I vill say eet again: leave now."
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
"No, it's not. And I have a hard time believing that Rot was under anyone's control... ever." Vino says. He has no ability to harm ghosts, so he'll just watch for other attacks. "Durin, what does your mind-passenger think of this claim?"
Funnily enough Astrana was already preparing an attack as well. She aims her staff at the ghost and attempts to curse it, the curse is intended defile his ectoplasma to make him slower, weaker and more vulnerable against attacks.
"Just kill... re-kill it!"
It should be noted she's holding on to the railing on the stairs.
The ghost would answer Vino's question, but he gets attacked! The sword goes through his throat and he... floats back. Now the phantom is little more than a fleeing shadow. His dark laugh rings through the air, and grows faint as he melts through a wall. The curse and magic sword seems to have injured him enough to force a retreat... or maybe he's just a cowardly ghost.
Of course, he sends them a parting gift. A falling chandelier, in fact. Psychically hurled at them from the ceiling, though strangely there wasn't one there before. They might want to get out of the huge and heavy brass and candle contraption's way as it crashes where they're standing at the top of the stairs.
Grrr.
Rot, and Durin if he seeks these memories, has vague knowledge that this particular ghost used to own the mansion when he was alive and still considers it his property and those who use it his subjects. He only commands the other ghosts of his time, however, so he's not Rot's master.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Vino tries to catch the chandelier with a gust of wind and toss it down the stairs. If that doesn't work, he'll try and grab the three of them with the wind instead, but that'll be a lot harder and use more Juice.
The huge chandelier isn't blown completely away by the wind, but its course is diverted. Instead of smashing into Vino, Durin, and Astrana, it crashes into the staircase just behind them. Maybe hitting one of them if they don't get out of the way in time, or sending a chunk of masonry or brass, glass, or candle at them.
The ghost's laughter still echos around the room.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Astrana groans, her left arm having taken a pretty bad bruise from landing on the edge of one of the steps when she fell. "...I'm okay, just a bruise." The tiefling informs the two as she get's up, supporting herself on her staff.
Durin will find the torch-lever, I presume, and pull it. Unless he doesn't, in which case... er, I dunno. They stand there.
Anyway, a secret passage in the wall swings open, revealing a long flight of steps going down into some dark dungeon. Faint ghostly wails greet them from the depths of the mansion. Rot's memories confirm the coffin lies at the bottom of the steps, but do they want to brave it?
Of course they do.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Yes, the torch lever that I totally didn't forget about gets pulled. He turns to his companions. "Alright. Let's make this quick. We go down, destroy the coffin, and get out." He pauses for comments, and if there are none that change anything, he says. "Let's go." Then down they go.
"Wait, let me do something, just in case." The tiefling says, making a short incarnation on the door. An glowing mark appears on the inside of it which will prevent it from being closed again as long as no one erases the symbol.
"There we go, let's continue." And so they descend.
The long and dank staircase has no light in it, so pretty soon they three vampire slayers will be surrounded by pitch black. I'm not sure if this is a problem for them, though.
If they're looking for coffins, they don't have to look much further than to their immediate right or left (if they can see in the darkness). The walls are lined with crude wooden caskets, and the stench of death and corpses permeates the air. Rot's memories reveal that his coffin is not any of these common ones in the walls. The stairs eventually open up into a long stone corridor, a bit wider than the secret passage and also lined with coffins. Now there are stone corpse-boxes in alcoves in the walls, some even ornate. At this point in their journey into these catacombs, a scratching noise starts up all around them. As if half-rotted fingernails were scraping against stone or wood all around them...
Rot's thoughts invite Durin to continue on through this dank hall under the earth. The real attraction is just ahead.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Vino is prepared for darkness. He brought a magic item that works by using several material components to interact with one another cause light to be released from a number of small glass balls. Also known as an LED flashlight.
"None of these. It's further on." Durin holds his sword ready, his grip loosening and tightening, agitated. "Be ready. Something's happening." He says, having the best hearing and likely picking up on the noise first. He keeps moving forward, however.
"You sure this isn't some trap?" Astrana asks nervously as she hears the scratching noise, from her previous experience, these kind of things never worked out well. She will attempt to keep as far away from the coffins as possible as they walk through the darkness.
Of course it's a trap. You'll meet your end down here. You might as well turn back now before it's too late.
Rot once again tries to convince Durin to flee! His coffin is quite close and he's nervous. A flash of anger and some curses about a werewolf probably pass through the drowpire's head from his psychic hitchhiker.
Eventually, they'll reach a square room where the most elaborate or important coffins lie. There are a lot of them, and most of them are labeled. There is a group of stone coffins laid neatly with careful spacing, the original "inhabitants" of the mansion and tomb, as well as some caskets added to the unholy place. The most noticeable of these is a huge ornate sarcophagus, decked out in gold and hieroglyphics, resting in the middle of the room. A shiny black coffin is stood up against one wall and a plain and crude wooden box lies on the floor next to it. The left side of the room is taken up by an ossuary: hundreds of human skulls are just stacked up on shelves and the ground. They all stare with empty eye sockets at Durin, Astrana, and Vino while grinning.
Rot (un)helpfully doesn't identify which of the many coffins is his. He summons up the last reserves of will to try to keep Durin from searching his memories again, though he'll probably do poorly in any mental battle. He's just trying to buy time. The scratching noise turns to a scraping noise, as if many coffins were trying to be pushed open by weak but insistent hands.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
"Let's just destroy all of them. Starting with the wooden ones." He takes an axe (ordinary - no magic) out of hammer space and tries to destroy the plain wooden coffin.
"Great, let me give you a hand boys." Astrana says as she starts to rummage through her bag of tricks, picking out and glove made of iron which she straps on.
The black crystal of her staff starts to glove as a, you guessed it, gigantic hand of iron appears in front of the tiefling.
The hand will then go on a rampage against the wooden chests, smashing them one by one, mimicking Astrana's own movements with the glove.
Vino's axe chops into the wooden box! Immediately, a wailing comes from the hole created by this and a ball of fire billows out of the gash. But it doesn't consume wood or burn flesh as it flows through the air cackling or crackling or both. The phenomenon tries to engulf Vino and... suck his blood! I don't know how a ball of fire sucks blood, but that's what it'll do if it touches exposed skin.
Durin stomps on the shiny black coffin. It gets dented and dirty, but doesn't smash immediately. It seems that it's not made of plywood: it's composed of thick and expensive lumber. He'll have to kick it a lot to smash it. <.< This coffin seems to be empty, or at least its occupant isn't aggressive.
There aren't actually anymore wooden coffins in the room for Astrana to smash, if she doesn't go for the ones Vino and Durin are going for. There are numerous crude boxes in the catacomb corridor behind them, though. The sarcophagus is also there, though it will withstand the first blow from the iron hand if she goes for that, and there are some stone coffins in the room as well as the wall of skulls.
From behind them comes the unmistakable creaking sound of one opening coffin.
__________________
Avatar by Gulaghar. Yeah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Julius Caesar, Shakespeare
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
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