05 The Terrors of the Cave
General Summary
After receiving the King's letter, Belladonna was unsure of how to proceed, considering that nobody in Wirenth really gave much thought to the Dwarven clans. Aramys then left to get some food and treats for Koi, not specifying whether she was going to buy them or catch them.
The door to the Guild opens, and Chip returns from his brief stay at his parents' home. They chat for a bit about what had happened while he was gone.
Chip then noticed a halfling woman crying alone at a table, and headed over to her. Her wife had gone mushrooming two days ago and hadn't returned yet. He hopes someone takes up the quest.
The party then keeps talking about meeting the King.
Bella proposes an idea for the meeting with the King - she says that the reason her kingdom fell was because there was a Doppelgänger in the leadership. The kingdom wants to make a comeback and she wants to know what she could do in the future to prevent this and to make sure that the King was on the side of the Dwarves on the political ground of Wirenth.
So the current plan for meeting the King is to try to get her on the side of the Dwarves in the conflict in Wirenth. Address the fact that there was a Doppelgänger involved in toppling the kingdom. Ask for her help in any way she can offer it, in exchange for establishing trade routes.
I am pleased to hear that you are willing to meet. With you by our side, my kingdom will definitely rise again.Chip offers that he could go to his family's workshop and bring an item they can offer as a token of gratitude for taking up her time.
Me and mine will be coming to the castle on Marday, if that doesn't work, please do send word.
With highest regards,
Chip asks Arlayana about the halfling lady, Elzador calls the Dwarves of Wirenth inbred, which makes Bella throw her flask, which then hits the halfling lady. She gives them more information about her wife and her disappearance. Chip then says they will take up the mission.
It's what adventurers do, ma'am.The party then goes to the Amethyst Athenaeum to get a map of the mine, and then head towards Skalder Mine.
The area around the mine is filled with heavy, heavy fog. It takes them quite a while to find their way around the mine.
When they get to the third level of the mine, Chip finds Gili's backpack. While he's looking through that, Elzador decides to keep walking. He stumbles and falls to an unknown fate, screaming on his way down.. Chip immediately snaps to action, sending Peep down to check if Elza is still alive and breathing. The familiar flies down, very slowly, until he reaches a body. Elzador's body. Chip asks Peep to check if Elza is still breathing, and the bird senses an airflow, a moment before dying. Chip now attempts to dispel the fog, doing so successfully. However, the fog that was around them is now clouding the minds of Chip and Bella, making them forget the last 10 minutes, including the fact that Elzador is alive.
Chip casts Light down the hole, notices Elza, and casts Healing Word on him. Due to the fog in his mind, he is unsure of whether the spell worked or not. Belladonna starts talking about how they should at least loot Elzador's body, to collect the gold, and Chip makes a comment on it, saying: "You nobles are all the same."
When he made that comment, a comment that could be considered cruel and mean, he felt a presence come over him. A presence he had felt before, whenever he was on the edge of darkness. He shrugs it off. Belladonna goes down to check on Elzador, rappeling down with the rope. The fog has now risen to the roof of the last level of the mine, so Bella doesn't know when she will reach the shaft, so she startles when her legs can no longer kick back from a wall, instead, she is now hanging from a rope, in an area concealed wholly by fog.
She falls on Elzador as she lets go of the rope, and when she is getting off of him, she steps on some mushrooms that release strong spores, in a manner similar to Puffball mushrooms. She breathes in the spores, which make her lungs hurt, as if she was breathing in chemicals.
A moment later she is stunned by an unknown force. As she is stunned, she sees a presence in the cave, and feels a hand on her head. It looks as if the creature was made of the mist. As if the mist was alive. As if the mist itself had claws, similar to long, overgrown fingernails, which are now digging into Belladonna's forehead. For a moment, Bella thinks about how in her childhood, her uncle Felix taught her how to skip stones on the river. As she thinks about that, the memory disappears and is forgotten.
She starts tying the end of the rope around Elzador's ankle. While doing that, she once again feels a clawed hand on her cheek, holding her face from behind. It tears into her skin a little bit, as the hand pulls away. From the corner of her eye she sees that the hand is made of dark mist and looks incorporeal. This time her mind wanders to the last thing that Felix said to her before dying, and, as the hand pulls away, this memory slips from her mind as well. The dwarf starts climbing up as fast as she can, trembling from fear, not fully knowing why. The fear starts drenching her hands in cold sweat, making her fall. As she falls again, even more mushroom spores fly up, making her even more woozy.
As she lies on her back, she sees a creature looking over her. It doesn't even seem real, it simply looks as if something had cast a shadow over the mist, creating a darker area. And that's what she would believe, if it hadn't been for the creature's eyes. It's eyes look like endless black holes, swallowing all light and hope from whatever it gazes upon. It feels like if someone stared at its eyes for too long, they would lose their mind and become an empty shell.
As she looks at the creature, it steps back and disappears into the shadow, reappearing a moment later from behind her, placing a hand over her face. Now her mind wanders to when she was practicing ancestor worship with her adoptive father. A feeling of love fills her for a moment, only to disappear along with the memory as soon as it came over her.
She is once again stunned for a few seconds, during which the curseveil steps over and through her, as if it were a ghost stepping through solid matter. She hears water rushing nearby. She unties Elzador and yells for Chip to pull her up. At this moment, the mist has reached the level that Chip is on. "We need to leave but we can't leave Elzador, and I am not going down there again!"
"Something about me feels empty now, and i don't know why." Chip once again dispels the fog, and goes down himself. He sees Gili, and brings her next to Elza. He ties the rope around his teammate, yelling at Belladonna to start pulling him up. Bella sends down another rope, which Chip ties around Gili right before going to climb up. When he gets to the top, both of them start pulling up the Dwarven citizen. A moment later, they feel the weight disappear, as if someone had untied her or cut the rope. Belladonna wants to leave immediately, but Chip is torn. This is an innocent woman down there. As he is weighing the options, the dark presence once again comes over him, urging him to leave the woman behind and save themselves. They then leave the cave, the curseveil, and the woman.
Having made that selfish decision, Chip feels the darkness around her once more, this time he enjoys it. The darkness is enticing. As they leave the cave, Elzador wakes up. The moment that he wakes, for a fleeting moment, he thinks about his mother, as the memories of her slip away. Then, for a moment, he thinks about his childhood, his father making him punish innocent peasants with magic, ramming it into his head that they do not deserve to even breathe the same air as them. This, as well, is now gone. the most defining moment of his life, gone. Chip feels incredibly guilty for leaving the woman behind, he feels selfish and dirty, so when Belladonna offers him alcohol, this time, he accepts. And there is a part of him that likes it. The same dark presence that is influencing his desires and feelings is making him like it. He hands the flask back, saying that he can't do it, he can't, he won't.
As they get back to the Guild hall, they all feel like a part of them has changed.
Belladonna is drinking a little bit less now, a part of the reason for her alcoholism has disappeared. Taking small sips, instead of gulping everything down at once. However, she now feels the need to forget the eyes of the curseveil. They give the information of the Curseveil and the mines and caves to Arlayana, who then awards them with 20GP per person, due to the incredibly dangerous notion of the Curseveil, and to the importance of the information they bring. Chip heads off to see his parents, and Belladonna orders a drink for her and Elzador.
