Vault hunter assemble - RPLOG
Participants
Date
18/4/478
Log
A small ways into the swamp, just off the beaten trail, sits a recently excavated cave entrance it seems. This old entrance was once sealed by what seems to be a tarnished, round metal door that now lays discarded to the side. The local wildlife that usually flourishes around these parts is absent strangely enough, the only individual present is none other than Kalt it seems. The vixen clad in her usual gear, with that raggedy looking cloak tied tight around her, as she seems to be awaiting the arrival of her 'help'.
And help has arrived, Angus traverses the swamp after recieving the call. He was ready for action, his usual gear replaced with equipment he thought would be better suited for this situation, his mainback and canvas replaced with leather with a crystal studded bow hanging off his back as he steps up to Kalt and smiles. "Hello hun, was it you that sent the call?"
Thelergramor walks on through the swamp shirtless, clearly in basilisk form with his grey-green scales on display. His serpentine tail drags behind him, a cannon held heavily in one arm and a guisarme in the other. Knife and axe at his belt, the ammo pouch containing more cannonshot next to them... The basilisk came armed. Though, caves and cannons...
Thel glances around from behind his plague mask, seeing Angus and Kalt, and hoping she doesn't still hate him at the moment... He walks over to them, leans on his polearm and speaks: "Kalt, Angus. This the place then?"
Zuri is among the group that answered Kalt's summons. The small salamander jovially strides alongside some of the others while munching on the remains of a chocolate-covered biscuit. On seeing Kalt the young mercenary quickly pats down his shirt to pat down any crumbs that might have made its way there. As per usual, he does not bring much in the way of armor other than sturdy cloak and vest, and for weapons he has only his two matched daggers. He comes to a stop next to Angus, and can't help but wave excitedly at Kalt in greeting.
Assuming this to be the previously discussed operation, Cassidy was naturally present. Though if this IS said operation... She's more than a little surprised to see all of these... Other, undiscussed parties here. She doesn't show it, though, with the porcelain mask on her face. She just gives a little shake of her head and looks towards Kalt. "This isn't the infiltration thing we were talking about, is it?"
Fenris saunters up in his customary long coat, an odd, silvery little otter shaped golem romping around his feet. He does not have much to say, just giving a questioning look to Kalt and a lazy salute to the others.
Cara runs through the area with her usual weapons in hand, however her standard attire has been replaced with with a canvas and more suitable clothing that consists of much shorter pants, boots, and a canvas jacket with multiple pockets that hold emergency supplies. She stops as she notices the large basilisk in the area and smiles, "This is going to be rather difficult if a basilisk is needed." Then, from out of the corner of her eye she notices two other familiar people. It appears that Fenris and Zuri made it on the list for this mission as well. She nods to them and moves over to the royal couple, eager to hear the report on the job for today as indicated from the gently swaying of her tail.
Ariving shortly after Cassidy, and wearing her padded sneak-suit, Natska takes up a spot by her wife's elbow. She gives a small, happy smile to the gathered crew, then turns her attention to Kalt, her ears perked as she waits to hear what is up.
Kalt returns Zuri's wave with a smile before the Vixen nods to Angus. "Yup, got sumptin' m'needin some folks to do for me... an' no Cass, this ain't the doom an' gloom trip... But it'll go help in' us for it." She pushes herself from the wall, and crosses her arms over her chest. "In this here cave, is a map, four runestones, an' some treasure. I'm needin the map an' runestones, the treasure is all yers to split how ya want it. They got some traps, an' they got some weird nasty fightin things. I won't be join in' ya for the push inside, m'gonna be checkin to make sure nuttin follows us in, 'fore I meet ya at the end. Any questions?"
Angus gives all a nod in greeting as he unslings the bow, drawing it taut to make sure that the pull was right. "So some cave splunking to try and find shines? Sounds about normal." He comments, flashing his bondmate a smile as he regards the others, seeing who would be coming with him.
Thelergramor has no questions for Kalt, aside from: "How big is it inside? We talking huge, or too small for a cannon to be useful?" He assumes it won't be a good idea to bring it in with him, considers leaving it with Kalt at the entrance. He then glances at Cara, nods. "Yeah, always good to have one of us around. Except when it isn't." Makes enough sense to the basilisk!
He then greets the rest. "Cassidy, Fenris, Natska... Other's whose names I don't know." He smiles behind his plague mask, looks back towards the cave. While it may not have been obvious from a distance, the basilisk has a few bruises on his body from his recent captivity. Nothing that should interfere with his performance today, or he wouldn't have shown up...
"Should be fun..."
Zuri steps up next to Angus, nodding in agreement with his words. "Walk in the park, eh mister Angus?" He tucks his hand into the breast pocket of his vest to retrieve yet another chocolate biscuit to start nibbling on. He smiles back at Cara. "And hey, if things do go sour in there, I guess we can practice some fancy martial arts!" He chuckles and takes a bite of his biscuit, seeming quite relaxed at this point in time.
"Ahh. Good, good," Cassidy says, nodding along and patting down her own padded jumpsuit before tucking her hands in the pockets dark longcoat she wears over it. "I was going to say... Didn't know how I felt about so many unknown variables on a sensitive job like that. This one seems alright enough, though." A nod to Thel. "Good to see you're alive. I was wondering what happened to you after that mess in the shanties."
Fenris nods and makes a few minor adjustments to some strange, silvery sleeves he is wearing and flexing his fingers in his gauntlets. He whistles and his golem clambors to his shoulders.
Cara answers politely, "No." Then, she proceeds to turn to everyone else and frowns before speaking, "Um, sadly I don't really know anything about traps though." She manages to smile as she continues, "I can certainly fight if you need me to do that, but is it okay if I just stay close to someone that actually knows about traps though? I'll give you my share of the treasure if you're okay with that."
and
Then, she turns to Zuri and responds, "If all goes well, then we shouldn't have to show off, Zuri." She proceeds to chuckle for a moment, "This is either going to be a very interesting day or a really strange one. Hopefully, these aren't the freaky kind of traps."
Natska tilts her head to the side at Kalt's briefing and raises a finger as she starts to say something, then thinks better of it and shakes her head. Her ear flicks. "No, no questions," she replies, quietly. She smoothly draws the thick, heavy swordbreaker sheathed at her back, then gives the others a small nod. "Alright then. Let's head in." The jaguar makes a motion with her other hand, drawing together a dancing spark of lightning to provide light, and heads for the cave.
Kalt shrugs at Fenris. "I dunno." Well, isn't she helpful... All the same, she offers a wide wave to the group as she steps to the side. "Give'em heck in there. Remeber, I'll see ya at the end!" The vixen smiling as she waits for the group to depart into the cave.
The cave itself was obviously carved out long ago, with barely any natural light save for some glowing fungus in the corners of the cieling. The floor is slick and damp, and the musk of the fungal presence fills the air... As far as the group can see though, it is just a simple corridor right now, big enough to fit three abreast with little issue...
Angus pats Zuri on the back. "Nothing is ever a walk in the park." He answers, the veteran soldier giving Zuri a smile before notching a barbed arrow to his bow. "Back into the jaws we go." He murmurs, turning and giving Kalt a bit of a wink before stepping forward. "You can keep your share Miss, I'll try and remove any traps I find."
"Glad to be alive, Cass. I've decided I'm not ready to die yet." Thelergramor smirks, shrugs. "Just some bounty hunters, I'll tell you all about it later... But it's good to see you guys." He then slings his cannon over his shoulder, heavy thing only slightly weighing him down as he takes the Guisarme in both hands and follows after Natska. Kalt's answer not too helpful in deciding to bring it or not. Decides he'd rather have it.
Getting all up in that there cave, he stays off to one side of it.
With his plague mask on, he'd have an easier time dealing with the scent of fungi, the smell of the herbs stuffed into the 'beak' of his mask potentially masking it.
"Away we go, then, yes," Cassidy says with a little nod, turning to follow after Natska. One hand strays towards the hilt of her sword, while the other remain free for any other needs she might have. She didn't much plan on entering sword range anyway, if she could help it. "Wonder what we'll find in here... Probably rock spiders."
Zuri smiles at Angus scarfs down the remainder of the biscuitin order to draw his twin daggers. After glomping down the delicious treat he replies to Cara. "I can deal with all sorts of mechanical doohickeys too. I'm sure we'll be fine!" As he follows the group deeper into the dark cave one of the salamander's curious biological features becomes apparent; The soft, low-level bioluminescent glow of his markings joins the glowing fungi in cutting through the darkness. Quite inconveniently, one might sumrise, since the little salamander generally prefers to be unseen.
Fenris walks along the dark tunnel, his golem's little eyes glowing in the darkness. "Nothing to worry about," he affirms, "We can handke most anything." The big tiger is certainly not worried, but very focused, scanning walls and floor and ceiling as he walks.
Cara grins from the fox's response. "Well, that makes things somewhat easier." She moves along with the rest of the group and stays in the middle. She carries her staff as she walks along, taking a look at everything around her and hoping to notice anything out of place. The smell of the fungus is rather annoying, but it can be ignored. After all, it's rather nice to see that so there are so many forms of light amongst the group.
Natska reaches the tunnel and pauses for the rest to catch up, then lets them take the lead as she falls into step next to Cassidy. The jaguar moves with sure, graceful steps, light on her feet and attention alert - even if these caves were "long abandoned" there was no telling what else might be down here. "I did worry about you, Thel. And it is good to see so many people here."
It would be by pure luck of course, that shortly after Angus' promise to clear the traps, he succeeds in clearing one... By activating it. The lack of true light aside from what is glowing, doesn't seem to aid too much as Angus' pulls a trip wire when the group is fully in the cave, a loud rumbling filling the hall for a moment... before the way behind them shuts as a thick metal grate falls over it. "... I'll clear that for ya too m'supposin." Kalt cries out from the other side! as the group is now stuck in the tunnel! The only way left to go, is further down the hall... Where he glow of the fungus increases, as it begins to coat the walls and cieling more liberally, hiding whatever markings would be below them, but it does give more light...
Angus blinks, stumbling over the trap before the grate comes down. "Heh....well, at least we have ample reason to continue forward then." Nothing he could do about that now, but in this lighting his bow is pretty useless, the arrow going back in the quiver before he draws the tomahawk at his belt.
Thelergramor is glad he brought his cannon... Then thinks it's not a good way to clear the metal grate without upsetting the surrounding stone... "Well, shit... But, thanks, Natska." He shrugs at the gate, then continues one, keeping an eye out for traps now. "She wasn't joking about the traps. Fun..."
Thelergralisk keeps moving down the passage, guisarme ready for stabbing/slashing at things, not overly worried yet. Confident in the group he has with him, and his own ability to not die...
Zuri was keeping an eye out for traps, he really was. Sadly all he can do is jolt alongside everyone else as the tripwire is triggered and the metal grate comes sliding down behind them. He looks at a few of the faces around the group, just as startled as some of them, then adds. "Uuh.. tripwire. Right there." He giggles. "Don't worry, it'l be okay!" He turns back to the tunnel and continues trudging alongside the others.
Cassidy furrows her brow as they become sealed in, heaving a heavy sigh. It's a good thing this WASN'T the infiltration mission or it'd already be blown. Now that they were here, and clearly in need of light, a fiery orb flickers into existence near her, casting the tunnel in a warm glow.
Fenris jumps as the entrance clangs shut behind them. "Kawauso," he says, and his little golem hops from his shoulder to the ground. The little otter opens its mouth wide and warm, yellow light shines forward. The tiger smiles at Zuri's optomism and continues on, still wary for more traps. "These look like dream mushrooms to anyone else?" he asks.
Cara turns around from the suddenly loud noise from behind her. She rubs the temples of her head with her free hand as she tries to ease her annoyance. "Right as we walk in. Okay, this will be a slight problem." She takes one look at the grate and nods before turning back to everyone else in the group. "Welp, I'm not breaking that grate down anytime soon. Oh well." She continues on with the rest of the group and shrugs her shoulders. As she notices the tunnel light up, she turns notices to her relief that the short fennec is a fire mage. She turns around and speaks,
"Thank you."
She hears Fenris's comment and takes a look at her Dream Shard for a moment before moving along with the rest of the group.
Natska sighs softly, then shakes her head. "Nice, Angus. Would you like me to lead?" she asks, shooting the fox a grin. She nods at Cassidy then and feeds more magic into her own light, strengthening it, as she moves closer to the front of the group. "Kalt will figure it out. I hope. If it's still there on the way out, we break it down then."
As the group continues forward, Zuri's eyes pick up the next threat to the group! Right in the center of the stone floor is a single cut out pressure pad, waiting for an errant footstep. Fenris catches the second however as he spies a trip line just beyond where the pressure pad was, it's cord giving a gentle glint in the now fully lit hallway! Thankfully, these should be easy to bypass, leaving a large stone doorframe leading into a large room for the group to face with next.
Zuri keeps his eyes glued to the floor in front of the group this time. The extra light definitely helps, especially when the flickering illumination from Cassidy's fiery orb and Natska's light creates a crisscrossing of shadows that makes a threat obvious to the little salamander. He raises his hand to catch the group's attention. "Wait up. The stonework over there looks unusual." He turns to the group, pointing towards the center of the corridor in front of them "Looks like a circular stone but it's not level with the rest of the floor. We should walk around it I think, no idea what it might be, but it won't be good."
Fenris snorts, looking into the carved room. "They are prolific trap makers, if not creative," he says, pointing out the glittering wire in the low light, "Trip wire. Just there past the raised stone." The tiger saunters around the periphery of the room to avoid the raised stone and to stand near the wire to guide others over.
Angus gives both Zuri and Fenris a nod, stepping around both as they continue onward. "Heh, and here I thought I was the one going to be looking for traps." He teases before going quiet once more, focusing on what is before them instead of what is behind.
Thelergramor didn't see the traps, blames his mask for that one. Despite it being pretty damn clean and easy to see through... Though it does make everything look red. Downside of the colored glass. He shrugs at Zuri. "Or, it could drop treasure. That's... doubtful, ignore me." The basilisk snickers, amused. Follows after Fenris, peering at the tripwire. "I'd offer to disarm it, but maybe someone else wants to first? Could always just step over it, though."
Cassidy folds her arms as the others catch the trap, ears flicking under her hat. With the traps having been pointed out, she falls into step with the rest and follows after once more, taking care to skirt the traps and avoid them.
Cara nods and follows the directions of Zuri and Fenris. She walks around the room the perimeter of the room, making sure to avoid touching the trip wire and also avoid touching the wall. After all, you can never be too careful in a place where the first trap is dropping a giant metal grate on the entrance.
Natska slips around the trap in the floor, remaining quiet as she sticks with the group. Her tail swishes back and forth, and her eyes sweep down the cave, looking for the next surprise.
It doesn't seem the group has much need to deactivate the traps, as the next room right before them, is... Large. larger than it rightfully should be. In the center of the room, stands a large bronze statue of an armored individual, their face hidden by a visor, and in their hands are a thick sword, and a shield. Along the walls, away from the statue, are a dozen smaller statues, each clad and hidden in armor with swords and shields on them. There doesn't seem to be an obvious exit from where they stand, the entirety of the room honestly appears to be the end of the trip...
Angus whistles as they walk into the room, his gaze roaming over the statues before he steps up to the biggest one. "....Either someone wanted to play a big game of chess, or something is off." His ears flick a bit, frowning as he starts to study the statue.
Looking over the large room, Thelergramor shrugs. "Wasn't expecting this." The basilisk peers around, then approaches the statue in the middle of the room. He leans on his guisarme, squinting up at the statue... "So what do you think this is? Just a statue?" Then pokes it in the groinal region with his polearm.
...He can be juvenile at times.
Zuri carefully navigates around the pressure pad, and takes hold his tail as he steps over the tripwire to avoid any embarrassing accidents. After clearing the dangerous part he smiles reassuringly at Angus. "It's a team effort. Next time you'll be the one saving my tail, I'm sure." He only needs to take a few more steps forward before they step into the grand room. From the short salamander's vantage point the statues seem even bigger and more intimidating, and he finds himself pacing towards the center of the group as he regards them with caution. "Watch out folks, chances are these are somewhow trapped as well. Not that I can see anything obvious.."
Cassidy's hand quickly slips to her sword, drawing it from its scabbard. "I don't think they're even statues," she says, glancing amongst the objects in the room, remembering the formation in the village not too long ago. "Be on your guard and be ready for anything. Watch your back."
Fenris joins the others in perusing the room. Kawauso has closed its mouth and scampers around the tiger's feet. He makes his way up to one of the smaller statues, examining the shield and the make of the armor. "Who do you think was meant to wear these?" he asks aloud.
Cara takes a look at all of the statues and looks at the statue in the middle of the room. A room this large can't have traps unless the entire room is some sort of test. The tigress's eyes widen as she suddenly thinks of an idea of what might happen. She speaks urgently, "Wait, didn't Kalt say that we would have to fight something in here?" She takes the sabre out of its sheath and puts the staff away for a moment.
Natska gives Cassidy a small nod. The jaguar takes a slow circuit of the room, looking around and examining the statues, then sighs and rubs at her muzzle when Thel pokes the one in the middle. "Men. Mmph. So, we are looking for a map... where is it?"
