Ghosts of Gauntcliff: Chapter Two

[steveflam]

The blonde haired lad moves through the ruins, slowly at first. Carefully, he prods with his makeshift walking stick. For someone so young, he appears at ease taking his time. Juergin keeps an eye out for the party, making sure he is never out of sight of them and neither are they for he. Finding a bit of shade, he appears to be poking around and whispering in a low voice to himself.

[ewancummins]

The Ruins

The ruins consist of a long rectangle of partially collapsed stone walls, with the remains of smaller walls inside. If there was once a second floor, as the height of the outer walls suggests, it has long since fallen. The interior space is choked with a large amount of debris. Here and there, broken, dry rotted wooden beams project from the heaps of jumbled masonry. Sunlight streams in through the roofless space above, but the maze of damaged walls and broken arches casts deep shadows across your paths, almost everywhere you step.

As you all poke about the ruins, you may come across various bits of rusted iron, broken pottery, and similar old junk.

The largest intact artifact in the place seems to be a massive stone table in the center of the ruins. The surface is partly covered with some sort of runic inscriptions.

[ewancummins]

meanwhile, at the Chateau

Denys proceeds to give Everline a casual walking tour of the house and grounds.

[Ail]

Eustace is excited at the prospect of exploring the ruins. Before the guide leaves him, he asks if it is known to whom this abbey was dedicated, what religion or sect had built it.

Once inside, he will stay with Juergin and the front party, and stop to explore the stone table. Does it look like an altar? what about the division where it is? He tries to read the runes.

[ewancummins]

Eustace is excited at the prospect of exploring the ruins. Before the guide leaves him, he asks if it is known to whom this abbey was dedicated, what religion or sect had built it.

Once inside, he will stay with Juergin and the front party, and stop to explore the stone table. Does it look like an altar? what about the division where it is? He tries to read the runes.

Earlier, Melmoth had told Eustace that he, Melmoth, knew little about the history of the island and less of the "abbey."

Now, as Eustace stands before the stone table, atttempting to puzzle out the runes carved thereon...

The floor suddenly shifts beneath the monk's feet,which causes him to stumble against the table. With a loud groan the stonework gives way. Eustace plunges into the newly opened pit, and vanishes from the sight of his companions!

[ewancummins]

Eustace

You hurt.

It's dark down here, but a little light filters through from above you. As your eyes adjust to the gloom, you can make out a large block of masonry wedged at an angle in the shaft about a dozen feet over your head. The pit, so far as you can tell in the semi-darkness, is circular like a well shaft, and narrow enough that you can easily span the diameter with your arms. More than that is hard to say, without better light or without carefully feeling around the walls.

You hear a scraping sound, and feel a slight tremor in the walls of the pit. The massive hunk of stone and mortar trapped in the shaft above you slides downward an inch or so.

[steveflam]

Juergin reacts quickly. He reaches into his pack and removing his rope, calls back. "Eustace has fallen into a pit, it looks like. He vwas too close to de table and something collapsed. I haff rope. Come help!"

[RocEter]

"Be careful, young man!" Thom says "The area around the colllapse could be unstable as well." He says slowly moving back, and then crouches. "We will have to deal with this very carefully, unless you wish to be at the bottom of pit and burry Eustace as well. I have some experience in these manners, I will slowly move over to him and find out how far the pit goes down and if Eustace is still able to move around." He says.

Getting down on his hands and knees, Thom slowly shuffles his way towards the collapse keeping his wieght dispersed so his wieght isn't all in one place. He gets close enough to peer over the edge and look down, he also checks the edge to see if the stone is jagged or if it broke off smoothly. "Eustace! You well down there young man?" He calls down the pit.

[Adam]

Benn's first impulse is to move to help Eustace, but upon seeing Thom step forward and hearing his warning about the rest of the ruin, he halts quickly. "Be careful yourself, Thom. It would seem the place is not the idle tourist attraction we first speculated."

He looks around the ruins, trying to spot any further traps or dead falls, and then, his eyes narrowing in suspicion, he turns back towards their guide to see if he is still where they left him.

[Ken of Ghastria]

"Rope! If anyone has rope besides Juergin, tie it to his!" Primeiro calls out to whoever in the group is carrying a length of rope. "Petrie! Give me a hand here, please!" He grabs one of the long pieces of rusted metal and then he half-shoves, half-coaxes it between two large pieces of masonry along the crumbling outer wall. "Let's... urrrgh... make this an anchor of sorts. We'll tie one end of rope here as support so we can... ooofff... pull Eustace up without getting too close to the edge ourselves."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Whle Sancerre walks her through the complex, Everline takes a little time out between asking questions about the constructuction, supply schedule, options to attain and depart the island and other such mundane subjects needed for the writing of a travelogue, to scan her environs for magical auras.

'Better safe than sorry, as always,' she tells herself. She finds herself testing the air for the scent of the deep underground as well; that scent of black earth, deep caverns and clay-thickened waters she came to know before. She tries to quash that impulse, however.

[ewancummins]

Chateau (cellar)

Whle Sancerre walks her through the complex, Everline takes a little time out between asking questions about the constructuction, supply schedule, options to attain and depart the island and other such mundane subjects needed for the writing of a travelogue, to scan her environs for magical auras.

'Better safe than sorry, as always,' she tells herself. She finds herself testing the air for the scent of the deep underground as well; that scent of black earth, deep caverns and clay-thickened waters she came to know before. She tries to quash that impulse, however.

Denys gives details, but never too much detail.
His engineer's name is Orlando, he says. Captain Griffith runs a regular packet from Port-a-Lucine, with stops in Mordentshire and the island of Ghastria. Most of the work on the chateau was done with contract labor from the mainland. Supplies are brought in on a regular basis, and Sancerre always has plenty of provisions laid aside for his guests and staff.

Now, looking over casks of wine in Denys' cellar, Everline sniffs the familiar scent of mineral-heavy water and dank stone walls. She feels the stones vibrate beneath her feet, as if a hidden river rushes below her, coursing through some blind gallery. Hollow sounds echo around the chamber, and Denys' voice now seems very far away.

Then, quite suddenly, the odd sensations are gone. The floor feels as solid as a mountain. The air is dry with only a hint of dust. Denys' voice sounds perfectly normal, with only the faintest trace of an echo.

[ewancummins]

The ruins

Getting down on his hands and knees, Thom slowly shuffles his way towards the collapse keeping his weight dispersed so his wieght isn't all in one place. He gets close enough to peer over the edge and look down, he also checks the edge to see if the stone is jagged or if it broke off smoothly. "Eustace! You well down there young man?" He calls down the pit.

The rim is jagged in a few places, where the mortar has cracked. The pit is as round as a well-shaft, and the curved inner surface is walled with stonework. When Thom looks down, he cannot see the bottom because a large, semicircular mass of masonry is wedged in the shaft, about ten feet down. Thom spots a narrow gap between the upper edge of the fallen masonry and the curved wall of the pit. Through that gap, he can see only a short distance further into the pit; the bottom is not in sight.

Thom (and anyone else nearby) hears a low groan rise from the depths...

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

Dorgio stammers out a curse when Eustace disappears into the pit. Seeing Primeiro call for rope, he takes a coil of hempen rope from his backpack and tosses it to the Borcan. Then, moving closer to the pit, he incants a prayer of illumination, hoping to shine more light into the darkness below.



[[ooc: cast light, centered on Dorgio's spear]]

[steveflam]

"Good idea, Herr Dorgio, the light. Listen, I was thinking that I am very light and flexible, ja? So, what if you men lower me into the pit to see unt inspect Eustace and the situation, ja? I know I can be best used in this capacity. What do you think?"