And so the mission begins, as the adventurers escort an archaeologist on what promises to be the biggest discovery of her career, and possibly the last.
Meet the boys:
Meet the boys:
Toshiro Nagi - The sensible and practical exorcist that hails from the quiet Tensia Town.
Furio - A mysterious assassin with a shadowy past.
Ezo Ashara - The lion-maned Beastfolk who finds himself very far from home.
Rev - A heavily armored knight of few words.
And we're off with a late morning start thanks to Furio needing to sleep off some injuries, while Toshiro meets with the other two shmucks seasoned adventurers that have also been hired on as security detail: Ezo and Rev. Over brunch, Sigma Delmar, the head archaeologist and financier of this excursion, goes over the details of the assignment: after a two-day trek along the Dimnaya Stream, the group will set up shop in a newly discovered Old Architect seed-vault, where Sigma will spend as much time as she needs to exploring, unearthing, and cataloging all of her findings. All research is to be considered confidential and solely part of the property of the Whiteeyes Institute.
On their way out of the town, they spot the guide they had hired the few days prior, performing an Oldsettler ritual known as Sektari (where whenever someone loses their lifelong bonded companion, they venture out into the wilderness with no possessions, and makes an attempt to find and plead with Winterwhite herself so that She can take them to be with their lost loved one. If she denies them, or they never find Her, then they return to civilization a little less than they were before). The crew of Oldsettler hired hands pause their preparations for Delmar's expedition and pay their respects.
The journey was straightforward and simple enough. Keep the Dimnaya on their right, head down, put one foot right in front of the other. Other than having to spend an extra night out in the cold, dull forest, taking some care to avoid Savage Boar trails, it was surprisingly uneventful. Ezo, with his powerful, feline build got to show off his agility as he bounded through the woods, while Furio gracefully navigated the canopy with equal speed and skill. Rev ran face-first into a very large, and very hard tree, causing him to tumble down into the stream. They found the entrance to the seed-vault at the mouth of a stream (which looked ominously like a skull either laughing or crying, jutting out from a snow-covered ridgeline).
Art by Rytis Sabaliauskas
Entering into the seed-vault itself was a trivial matter, except for the rather large and imposing Rev, who found some trouble squeezing through a crevasse adjacent to the main entrance. The main entrance of course, was caved in and blocked off by an even larger and more imposing mound of rocks and loose boulders. While everyone shimmied into the vault, Rev, Ezo, and a handful of the hired hands spent a few hours having to move, dig, and otherwise excavate their way in through the ruined entrance.
Just inside they came upon a series of wolf-like statues, some crumbled, few left standing. They seemed to be guarding the passage just beyond. Throughout the rooms were also inscriptions and warnings written in an old language that all seemed to echo the same tune, "Stop. Do not enter. What's here remains here." Of course, they were all ignored just the same.
A few days passed as Sigma Delmar went to work, dusting and detailing and indexing and cataloging all of her findings in an excruciatingly slow and methodical manner. The four passed the time by establishing ingresses and egresses, rearranging some of the wreckage to form a working barrier for the main entrance, should any savage boars or hungry ape-cats catch their scent. While exploring, they did find a hidden room which housed what looked like cow-heart-sized chrysalides entombed in blocks of ice. Tensions rose as the discussion of what to actually do with this discovery came to a head: Rev unleashed his flail and tried to break the ice open, while Toshiro stepped in front of him with a pistol raised at his chin to stop him, prompting Ezo to level his spear at the Demon Slayer. All the while Furio watched from the shadows to see how this would turn out.
They agreed to alert Sigma of their discovery, and leave it be until she decided what was to be done with it giving everyone a chance to cool down. It was obvious that patience was wearing thin.
Unluckily, the next morning Sigma made a gruesome discovery in the deepest part of the seed-vault, beyond a previously-hidden passageway to a much deeper, much older section of the Vault. It seems there was a third level, not made by Oldsettler hands, but by Old Architect design. One of the Oldsettlers who was hired to help, going by the named Jonboy, called out to the four who were preparing defenses, sharpening swords, and tending to other minutiae at the entrance, and guided them down to where Sigma had made her discovery.
Beyond a crack in the wall, an vast and ancient tomb was found. Squared-spiral Columns extended up into the dark of the massive vault. At the far end, hundreds of feet away, Sigma's torchlight flickered and an eerie and ominous feeling crept up everyone's spine. They rushed to her, drawing weapons and fanning out. When they nearly caught up, she was reading some archaic inscription on the wall "Te upir san sancto inni, dom danni Nocteeira", tracing her fingers along it and accidentally pricking it on some loose sharp object. Unknowingly (to anyone not paying attention, or who hasn't seen a horror movie in the past forty years), her blood and spoken words triggered some ancient spell as the wall caved away revealing a tall, red-eyedsomething someone just beyond the torchlight.
On cue, Toshiro protectively snatched Sigma away as the someone in the darkness lunged out and scooped up Jonboy with a sickening crunch. As the torch fell to the ground, the four immediately turned to run with Sigma in tow. The only sound they could hear was more visceral crunching and slurping in the darkness as they sped away, running for their lives away from this foul place, and whatever evil they might have just unleashed.
Just inside they came upon a series of wolf-like statues, some crumbled, few left standing. They seemed to be guarding the passage just beyond. Throughout the rooms were also inscriptions and warnings written in an old language that all seemed to echo the same tune, "Stop. Do not enter. What's here remains here." Of course, they were all ignored just the same.
A few days passed as Sigma Delmar went to work, dusting and detailing and indexing and cataloging all of her findings in an excruciatingly slow and methodical manner. The four passed the time by establishing ingresses and egresses, rearranging some of the wreckage to form a working barrier for the main entrance, should any savage boars or hungry ape-cats catch their scent. While exploring, they did find a hidden room which housed what looked like cow-heart-sized chrysalides entombed in blocks of ice. Tensions rose as the discussion of what to actually do with this discovery came to a head: Rev unleashed his flail and tried to break the ice open, while Toshiro stepped in front of him with a pistol raised at his chin to stop him, prompting Ezo to level his spear at the Demon Slayer. All the while Furio watched from the shadows to see how this would turn out.
They agreed to alert Sigma of their discovery, and leave it be until she decided what was to be done with it giving everyone a chance to cool down. It was obvious that patience was wearing thin.
Unluckily, the next morning Sigma made a gruesome discovery in the deepest part of the seed-vault, beyond a previously-hidden passageway to a much deeper, much older section of the Vault. It seems there was a third level, not made by Oldsettler hands, but by Old Architect design. One of the Oldsettlers who was hired to help, going by the named Jonboy, called out to the four who were preparing defenses, sharpening swords, and tending to other minutiae at the entrance, and guided them down to where Sigma had made her discovery.
Beyond a crack in the wall, an vast and ancient tomb was found. Squared-spiral Columns extended up into the dark of the massive vault. At the far end, hundreds of feet away, Sigma's torchlight flickered and an eerie and ominous feeling crept up everyone's spine. They rushed to her, drawing weapons and fanning out. When they nearly caught up, she was reading some archaic inscription on the wall "Te upir san sancto inni, dom danni Nocteeira", tracing her fingers along it and accidentally pricking it on some loose sharp object. Unknowingly (to anyone not paying attention, or who hasn't seen a horror movie in the past forty years), her blood and spoken words triggered some ancient spell as the wall caved away revealing a tall, red-eyed
On cue, Toshiro protectively snatched Sigma away as the someone in the darkness lunged out and scooped up Jonboy with a sickening crunch. As the torch fell to the ground, the four immediately turned to run with Sigma in tow. The only sound they could hear was more visceral crunching and slurping in the darkness as they sped away, running for their lives away from this foul place, and whatever evil they might have just unleashed.
Adventure: Longwinter (Written by Luka Rejec of WizardThiefFighter)
System: Whitehack RPG (Written by Christian Mehrstam)
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