Chronicles of 'Team B' - Chapter 39 - Viy
General Summary
Waves of fear radiate from the loathsome creature, even as two familiar-looking amphibian beings with bumpy heads and sharp claws appear out of nowhere in the cavern. They hold forked rods, and their summoner commands them to lift its heavy eyelids off the ground, likely to inflict a frightful fate onto the intruders. Malina causes some vines to briefly entangle the minions and flings a glowing rock toward it, in order to be able to see, but Misha and Alden take off running toward the cave of statues. Agapia flees to the opposite end of the cave, into darkness. Zorina looses a pair of arrows toward it, but is unable to penetrate its thick hide, though she hurts the tiny servitors slightly. Not wanting to be left all alone facing the creature and its minions, she decides to retreat toward the large cave with two of her companions.
Agapia feels her way along the wall, and eventually, finds her way toward another tunnel. Somewhere in the distance, she hears the faint sound of running water, and continues to move towards it. She soon enters a larger chamber, and as the sounds of heavy footfalls gets fainter, she gathers up her courage to light a candle. She is in a smaller, roundish room, which is empty except a block of stone with a big sword stuck into it. Agapia tries giving it several tugs, but is unable to draw it out. On the other end of the cave, there is yet another tunnel, so she follows it, into a smaller, vaguely oval chamber. Along the far wall, she discovers the source of the running water - a small trickle of a a waterfall, which emerges from the wall, and disappears underground. At the other end of the room is a basin of water that smells a bit brackish. The girl inspects it, but it seems to possess no other properties. As the creature seems to have gone, Agapia decides to return to the chamber it came from. Now that she can see, she inspects the treasure pile on the floor. The coins, ingots and armaments hold little interest for her, but as she moves it about, she finds a few shiny stones, a stoppered clay bottle, and two curious crystal decanters full of liquid. The clay bottle, unstoppered, has the strong smell of sweat. These containers she takes, and then runs down the hallway toward the statue cave, from which screams now emanate.
* * *
Misha and Alden run headlong to the other end of the cave - anywhere, to save themselves from the horror now approaching them. The monster taunts them from the tunnel, saying that it is coming for them, and soon, its servitors will left their eyes, and it will behold them. Malina, unable to help them, prepares for the inevitable, and lights another stone to at least be able to see as their doom approaches. Zorina can see without it and keeps her wits about her. She hides behind one of the statues, and as the monster passes to her left, she fires at it once again, and retreats behind another statue. But not far enough. The blind monster somehow spies her out now, and sending the two minions up ahead to deal with Malina, follows her and delivers two crushing blows to the foxwoman, and fells her. It then follows the minions to the other end of the cave, where Misha and Alden are scrambling madly - if they run down the other tunnel, they will soon come upon the shimmering curtain, and they keep enough presence of mind to run the opposite way, taking care to stay away from the monster's reach.
As it bears down, Malina summons a column of silvery light, and shines it down upon the creature and its minions. It burns the creature slightly, but incinerates the minions. Annoyed, the creature summons four more minions as it waits to move in for the kill, but Malina continues to chant, and the beam of light dispatches the minions. The master keeps summoning more and more, but Malina's beam keeps searing their small amphibian bodies. Around this time, Misha and Alden finally recover from the shock of seeing the creature. Misha moves toward it with his sword, but it fells him with no more difficulty than it had with Zorina. Alden comes next, but cannot cut into it with his scythe, and is also pummeled to the ground. Malina invokes Mokosh to heal the two warriors, and with difficulty, Misha rises. Alden's wounds are soothed, but he remains bent over with pain. Misha lunges at the master with his boar spear, and brings down divine wrath upon it. He holds him at bay for a bit, but the master brings him down again. Now livid, he summons four more minions, who charge into Malina, and corner her. As the master heads toward the young woman to deliver the final blow, Agapia suddenly runs into the cave, holding her candle aloft. "You are a horrible, ugly, smelly, mean thing!" she yells at him. "I don't know how God allows you to walk upon the earth!". "No one speaks to me this way!" the master bellows, and then collapses with a thud upon the cave floor.
Malina summons giant frogs to eat up the remaining minions, but after the master falls, they suddenly disappear. She dismisses the column of light, and continues to pray for Misha and Alden to rise. Agapia runs over to Zorina, and feels her viscera splayed across the floor. Grabbing one of the crystal decanters, she pours the contents into the foxwoman's open wound. But it is too late. As Alden and Misha stagger over to the corpse, Agapia drapes herself over Zorina's body, sobbing uncontrollably.Rewards Granted
- one clay vessel with liquid
- two crystal decanters (one now spent)
Missions/Quests Completed
- Viy slain
Report Date
06 Nov 2020
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