The Curse of the Witch-King Chapter 4

[ewancummins]

EARLY MORNING



Rested from a night's sleep and fortified by a hot breakfast, the party rides out of town across a wide plain of mud flats and stony fields, littered with boulders and scarred by deep gouges in the land, dotted with bunchgrass and wildflowers. High summer though it is, and the sky nearly cloudless, the breeze carries a biting chill.
The Stair proves easy to find. No flowers grow within a bowshot of it, nor a blade of grass. The jackrabbits , birds, and feral goats the adventurers have noticed on their trip through the country make no appearance in this blasted, lifeless zone around a barren, low mound.
Drawing near, the heroes spot the splintered old boards nailed across a vertical rectangular hollow in the hillside.
The Stair, as their gnomish guide confirms.

The ponies become alarmed, balking at a close approach to the boarded up entrance.

[Lord Skybolt]

"Well this calls for some scouting I would say . Kat or Fala, who wishes to go and see what has the ponies so alarmed ? If you don't mind or you could both go as you both are much sneakier than me or Klokulf so could watch each others back as it were ."Alain Declares to his most stealthy party members .

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"It may be the place itself the ponies fear; even plants won't approach," Klokulf remarks. "I support a cautious survey, however."

He casts his eyes about the landscape. "We should also find a place to tie the ponies that they find agreeably distant from the Stair."

[kintire]

Kat nods quickly, slips off her pony and slips closer to the middle of the zone circling around it to get a view from all sides, staying as quiet and hidden as possible

[ewancummins]

Kat can't see much until those boards are pulled down.

Once Kat and the gnome, Fala, have searched for traps (finding none) and removed the rough, weather-worn planking, the scouts can get a better look into the Darkling Stair.


Not much better, though. Daylight reaches in only a short distance, showing bare stone walls and the uppermost section of a descending stairway narrow enough that a party of armored men would have to go single file. The gnome could squeeze by alongside Katrin, if neither was worried about tripping the other.


Fala can see better than Katrin, if she stands partially inside the doorway, but even so, the gloom within the stairwell seems preternaturally heavy.

Thrusting in a lantern or torch proves of little help--the darkness rushes in, quickly reducing the firelight glow to a mere spark, a dying ember.

[Lord Skybolt]

Fala does a quick movement with her hands almost like shes point at everyone in the group then says"I have made it so we will be able to speak to each other for over an hour unless someone else dispels the spell I just cast to distance of 170 feet . If I say I'm going silent then I will not be able to talk to anyone while I do that as I have invoked magical silence on myself for about about 6 minutes at the most ."

[ewancummins]

FALA, INTO THE DARKLING STAIR




The gnome can see in the dark, but the gloom within the steeply descending stairs clings at the edges of her vision, like black spider webs.
A little further down the stairs twist right, turning into a spiral stairway. Fala walks on slowly, quietly, checking the floor and walls with a careful eye, light taps of toe and fingertip.
No traps so far. Just stone surfaces, bare except for a little grime and muck.


Faint sounds from deeper down, a dripping noise.

A glimpse back reveals not even a faint glimmer of sunlight, though she knows she has not come so far down that she should have lost all sight of the glow at the opening above, even with the twist of the stonewalled stairwell. This thick darkness must indeed be more than ordinary murk to effect her senses so.


---What the others see

The gnome enters, swiftly swallowed by blackness within the Stair....

[kintire]

Kat advances. checking the stairs carefully until the darkness swallows her torch and she can no longer see. Then she glances back at Klokulf

"Can you do anything about this?"

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Klokulf frowns, then rolls up his sleeve to reveal his holy symbol. He chants a brief litany, and the symbol begins to glow like a torch. When the spell is complete, he walks up to the Stair and thrusts the light into the darkness.

[ewancummins]

And the light dies.

[kintire]

Kat steps back from the dark stairs and eyes them warily.

"You know, I've been thinking. Is it wise to leave the horses out here unprotected with those humanoids and that armed group about? Maybe we should deal with them first, secure our rear and clme back here later..."

[Lord Skybolt]

"I agree with Kat on dealing with the threats out here first so as to secure are exit from this benighted and light less entrance . I more than likely could conjure a light to at least light our way but think it in our best interest to deal with the possible enemies out here first . "With those words he turns from the dark stair and whispers to Fala"Come back, we will deal with this when better prepared for via more than one barely there shinning holy symbol ."

[ewancummins]

The party falls back a short distance, leaving the archway of the Darkling Stair. Bereft of its wooden covering, the door gapes like a black, hungry mouth in the earthen slope.
An eerie moan drifts across the space between the group and the dark portal, perhaps the shifting breeze playing across the stone arch or perhaps something hidden within the blackness.

The party's mounts stamp and whinny a bit, but calm somewhat as Kat and the others draw near them.

Clouds blow in overhead, creating areas of alternating light and shade over the brown plains and hills.

The weather turns chilly within minutes.
A few cold droplets fall, hints of a rainstorm to come.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Klokulf retracts his arm from the stairwell's shadow. "Come noon, I can make a brighter light."

He looks to the others. "Were the armed men, missing livestock, and mysterious tracks even near this side of the town?" He sighs. "I suppose we have a little time until we can attempt to descend the Stair, if we truly wish to investigate other things . . ."

[ewancummins]

LEAVING THE DARKLING STAIR

The party heads for the nearest farm, several miles southwest and reaches the fence line just as the drizzle breaks into a cold, heavy downpour. This ought to be more or less the area where the tracks were found and could be one of the homesteads that reported missing animals, if the information picked up in town was correct.
A dirt track runs from the gate, between garden patches and animal pens to the front door of a stout fieldstone farmhouse.
Someone or something moves within, a flitting shadow obscured by rain.
Goats bleat at the party, munching mouthfuls of weeds and slops, and an old yellow dog barks from the corner of an outbuilding that looks like a small barn or large shed.
No people in plain sight. But a thin plume of smoke has appeared over the short, heavy-built chimney, twisting up in the rain.