The Eye of Anubis: Book Two

[DocBeard]

"Gosh..." Tomas trails off, "That fire must have been going for at least ten minutes! Maybe as much as twenty. It could be covering as much as half the house...though I'm betting it's closer to a third."

The Lamordian grins a little, adjusting his shirt with a sigh and plunging into the water, doing his best to wade-swim across...

(Spot: 7, Archetecture: 22, Swim: 18, 20, respectivly.)

...and comes up on the other side, soaked but otherwise unharmed. "See! The water's fine!" Tomas exclaims, waving a little at the others. Not wanting to risk the mill falling down, Tomas takes a moment to breathe in, and out, and heads inside....

(OOC: Casting Endure Elements and heading into the mill.)

[yalenusveler]

"I've got to agree with Khalil, because..well..." Andre looked a bit sheepish as he regarded the river, and the Mill on the other side. "I can't swim. I'm very good at the whole flailing about and sinking thing...but swimming, never got the hang of it."

[NeoTiamat]

The Abandoned Mill
April 26th, 761, 6:04 PM
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Distantly, you see Tomas walk around the mill, opening the huge doors and looking a bit sick as a wave of smoke bursts out of the enclosed mill. Grimacing, the Lamordian entered the burning mill.

For a minute or two, nothing happened, though you noticed the windows of the top story of the mill fill with smoke. And then....

There was a scream. A shrill, inhuman scream, horrific and agonizing in its loudness. They must have, quite literally, heard it in Ravnika. Whatever it was, you rather sincerely hoped it wasn't Tomas who had caused that scream.

"That... does not sound good." Guy murmurred, a flash of concern in his eyes. Jervis merely stood by and gazed at the firelight, the flames reflecting off his brown eyes.

[OOC: Now you have two reasons to enter the burning mill! Find out some information and save the paladin!]

[yalenusveler]

"I really...REALLY hope that wasn't Tomas!" Andre gets out, before daring to be less than sensible, and diving into the water, trying his out of shape academic best to get across to the other side. Astoundingly, and proving that some divine force looked out for self righteous agnostics, he managed to make it across to the other side. Taking a brief moment to offer a small prayer of thanks, and invoke a Shield of Faith, he made his way in, to see what had become of Tomas.

15, 16 to make it across, casting Shield of Faith, then heading in

[NeoTiamat]

The Abandoned Mill
April 26th, 761, 6:08 PM
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Jervis watched the whole proceedings with a his customary scowl, watching Andre swim across. For a few minutes, there was silence, and then once more the eerie, piercing shriek sounded across.

"Idiots..." Jervis muttered as he watched the party continued to plan how to cross. The guard walked over to Khalil and snatched the rope away. "Give me that..."

Jervis walked over to the edge of the river, and quickly doffed his loose, brown colored shirt. A heavy piece of chainmail went after it, clinking dully on the rocky shore. Jervis slipped his sword scabbard over his shoulder and kneeled to tie the rope to a short bush.

The mercenary was more muscular than you had imagined, despite his relatively slender build, and a few ropy scars covered his body. What drew your eye, however, was the immense, gorgeous tattoo upon Jervis's back.

It was a dragon, and done entirely in black ink, two outspread winks reaching out towards his shoulders, while its rearing head belched for a plume of black flames. It covered Jervis's entire back, stretching down from his neck till the dragon's tail ended in the small of his back.

Gripping scabbard and rope, Jervis leaped into water, crossing the raging river with a few slow, strong strokes, emerging on the other side. Kneeling, he pulled the rope taut and tied it to a dead, ragged looking bush not far from the bank, drawing his longsword as he left the scabbard on the beach.

[OOC: Swim DC now reduced, and Use Rope grants a +2 synergy]

[NeoTiamat]

[OOC: Tomas RP, posted by myself so as to speed things up and due to DocBeard being busy.]

Now, the mill is quite large, and has heavy double doors that were meant to allow wagons to enter. Despite that, they're unlocked, and as you pull one of them open, a blast of smoke erupts from inside the mill.It's also extremely hot, and, what you don't quite expect, smells like a charnel pit.

Ugh....Tomas looks sick for a second, forcing himself to finish opening the door. Is this where they burned the body parts they didn't need, or something? A warehouse? "Hallo!" Tomas shouts, "Is anyone in there?! I'm here to help!"

Silence, and smoke, but not darkness. Tomas can see bright orange flame around the walls, but most of the center of the mill was not ablaze. As the Lamordian gazed inside, he noticed bones, and bits of rottings limbs, the cause of the horrible stench. The looked ripped apart, and some cases, gnawed upon. The interior of the mill is mostly bare, but there's a huge pile of machinery in the center, mill-stones and grinders and what not, and a second floor that covers part of the building, with a rickety wooden stairwell leading up to it.

"Auch..." Tomas fights off the urge to throw up, largely because he doesn't have much in his gut to throw up, admittedly. Gnawed...were the ghouls here? What kind of person is he that he can look at a charnel house and seriously think like that? Tomas shakes the dark thoughts off, heading towards the stairs.

The stairs are firm and strong, despite their dubious appearance, but the top of the mill is wreathed in smoke, it having no vent other than to escape through the cracks in the roof.

Tomas looks at his torn, allready ruined from the last time shirt, sighs, and rips part of it off, proceding to tie the shawl around his face in order to protect his mouth and nose, while stooping so as to keep low to the ground...

Most of the second floor is simply a walkway, and before it, a door to what was once the miller's home, Tomas presumed. There is perhaps two feet of space between the heavy smoke and the walkway. Tomas draws his sword, juuuust in case, and tries his best to avoid the smoke, working his way towards the door and the miller's home...The door is unlocked, but closed.

Tomas nods, leaning against the door and gently pushing it open, making sure that, if there's anything horrible on the other end, he'll be able to stab it prominantly about the head, neck, and shoulders.

The sudden possibility of an avenue for escape pulled the heavy pall of smoke with it, allowing the black cloud to rush to fill the empty room.

This scarf was an awesome idea, Tomas thinks to himself, as he doesn't get his lungs filled with horrible, deadly smoke. At one time, the second floor had been a suite of rooms for the miller and his family, but recently someone had rather brutally torn down the seperating walls.

Everything, the floor, the walls, those bits of cieling that Tomas could see through the smoke, all were covered in heavy black marks, forming some sort of hideous arcane assemblage. In the center of the black concentric circles, a misshapen block of stone stood silently. Further along, against the back wall, a crude table had been rigged up, and an assemblage of items strewn across it.

"Gosh." Tomas can't help but say, wishing he had one of those fancy Pardoni "cam-eras" so as to show the group's arcanists.

Atop the table, you notice the following: A pair of clay pots, what looks like a small paper with a few small black things on it, and a leather-bound book.

Okay. Tomas taps the floor with his sword a few times, to check and make sure that it doesn't feel like it'll give out from under his weight, as he makes his way across the room in order to grab the items.

Barely does Tomas take a few steps into the room, then a curious, groggy feeling settles on the Lamordian. Something screamed amidst the flames, shrill and inhuman, but he felt tired, and very, very, very sleepy... An alarmed thought passes through the student's mind as he falls into a deep, dreamless slumber.

[yalenusveler]

As Andre approached the huge doors of the mill, he noticed something moderately unusual. In addition to the acrid, streaming smoke coming from the open doors, there was another, charnel smell emerging.

Andre winced, covering his face with his sleeve, glad that it being soaked made for a small barrier against the acrid smoke....and the less pleasant smells. "Tomas! Tomas can you hear me? What the bloody hell WAS that?!" He asked as he braved the building. Against better intentions, he muttered out the words to a spell...if there were "leftovers" inside..they wouldn't notice him..hopefully.

No one answered. Inside, a rather gruesome sight greeted Andre. Fire, leaping, vicious orange and red flames flickered around the walls, leaving the center mostly accessable. In the main area however... bones, and rotting body parts, some of them looking, well, gnawed upon.

In the center of the empty mill, a huge machine stood, the heavy grind stones for milling long since disused. About half of the second floor formed another area, the other half open, and a walkway was above, with a rickety wooden stairwell leading there. So far, the stairway was untouched by flames, but Andre was unsure how long that would remain the case.

Andre made his way to the stairs, deciding to go for the room upstairs that had attracted attention earlier. The extreme heat wore on him, a muttered curse about remembering to memorize at least one Endure at all times....nevermind a resist...course, for that he needed a resist...

Need to make this quick Andre thought to himself, already starting to consider doffing his armor. Yes, it would be a loss...but it could be replaced. He, at least to his own mind, couldn't. Right now, it was a cross between getting to that upstairs room, and finding tomas, with hopefully the utmost of haste.

"Tomas! For the love of gods neither of are sure exist, where ARE you?!" No answer came. The top of the walkway was wreathed in smoke, but there was about a foot or so of space wherein one could breathe easily. The stairway, surprisingly, was firm, and Andre could see that the door to the second floor, what Andre presumed was once the miller's home, was ajar.

Andre made for the door, trying as fast as he could. He'd miss the armor...but being burned alive by ones own protection was NOT on the agenda today. Perhaps later. No...not really. As he reached the door, he tried to peek in, to see SOMETHING inside...

Managing not to cough his lungs out in the black smoke, Andre stares at the room, like something out of a bad novel. At one time, the second floor had been a suite of rooms for the miller and his family, but recently someone had rather brutally torn down the separating walls. Everything, the floor, the walls, those bits of ceiling that Andre could see through the smoke, all were covered in heavy black marks, forming some sort of hideous arcane assemblage. In the center of the black concentric circles, a misshapen block of stone stood silently.

Up against a far wall, a crude table had been rigged up, and an assemblage of items strewn across it. A pair of clay pots, a piece of paper with several small, black objects on it, and a leather book.

And about five feet into the room is the still, motionless form of Tomas, pitched face forward.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Seeing Tomas, Jervis and Andre forge their way across--and seeing Jervis prepare the way for the rest--Charles quickly decides to forego magical assistance and just take the rope across. Dropping his pistols and rapier on the bank, he grabs hold of the rope and steps forward into the river.

Unfortunately, he had not reckoned with the full force of the water, nor the debris it is bringing down from the mountains; as he makes his third step and the water rises to his chest he steps on a flat stone and is struck by a tree branch almost simultaneously, and disappears into the roiling water.

Hideous. Simply hideous. Don't worry, kids, it's not as hard as Charles is making it look. Let's just say Lady Luck owes me big time.

It's a curious experience being rolled along at the bottom of a river; Charles can truthfully say nothing like this has ever happened to him before. After the first few seconds of being whirled about like a leaf in a high wind he recovers his bearings enough to figure out which direction is down--a process expedited by banging his knees on the rocks of the stream bed. Pushing with his legs, he manages to get his head above water, and his hands tangle with the branches of a tree leaning over the water. After a few seconds spent to recover his breath he pulls himself hand over hand up the obliging tree until he's able to get his feet under him and stagger to shore. After a few more seconds of clearing his head, he's disappointed to note that it's the same shore; he didn't somehow make his way across in the confusion. Checking all of his weapons to make sure they're still there, he sloshes back upstream, forcing his way through the underbrush and keeping up a monontonous string of curses as he goes.

[yalenusveler]

Andre ran as fast as his little scholar legs could carry him to Tomas's still form...SOMETHING in his mind reaching out to grab the book and assorted dross

The items on the table, a number of them, started to float towards Andre, as he felt a sudden grogginess, but one that his mind shook off. Tomas was fast asleep, but otherwise unharmed, although nothing Andre could do could wake him. A few dozen random small items floated up to Andre, followed by an earsplitting shriek breaking the silence.

Andre moved to store the random bric a brac, leaving the...ok, NOT going to think about THAT for right now, to maintain the rest while he got Tomas out of there. Trying to drag the young paladin was a pain to say the least, Nevermind ensuring that he was still doing that whole breathing thing every so often. You could've said no, Theroux. You could've stayed behind, did your lecture series on obscure outlander faiths. You could've been safe at home, grading papers. Thank all the myriad gods you decided to come along.

Andre kept pushing, despite being tired. Even abandoned some of the less important bric-a brac. He could always leave tomas...say he was too far gone when he got to him, that all he encountered was Tomas' corpse. But even if that resulted in him LIVING...he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

As Andre dragged Tomas over to the edge of the walkway, he *did* notice something. The flames were approaching the massive millstone, heavy with bygone decades of grain dust.

"I'm a sodding Moron!" Andre shouted to no one in particular, starting to make it as fast as his Tomas encumbered, fatigued body could make it. This would HURT. It would Hurt a lot. It would hurt worse than that time one of his grad students kicked him in a personal place for calling their thesis akin to defecating in a blank book, and then closing the pages. But it would be the kind of hurt you survived, as opposed to massive explosion hurt. That tended to cause dead.

But falling out a window? Nah...not so bad. As Andre dragged the Lamordian really quickly through the room, another loud, piercing shriek set off. Andre moved over to the window, noticing that it was directly over the water wheel. Not much time left...

"Please PLEASE don't be a horrible Mangling death" Andre said, as he moved to get himself and Tomas out of the window, bric a brac passed off to the thing, which he...Instructed?..to follow them down, but try and stay dry. He WANTED what was ever in that book.

"ANYONE! going to need some help!" he bellowed out of the window, as he tried to put operation not die a fiery death into action. The two explorers fell forward, landing in one of the patches where water had once gone, a chunk of wood stabbing Andre in the stomach.

Creakily, slowly, the waterwheel moved forward, then a little faster, depositing Andre and Tomas into a depression where water had once run when the mill operated.

....And then the mill exploded.

It was enormously loud, and immensely powerful, a huge fireball that took the building's roof straight off, and shattered the walls of the old building. Bits of wood shrapnel flew everywhere, taking the top off the waterwheel, and covering Andre in a fine sprinkling of wooden shards.

For a moment, there was dead silence. Or perhaps simply Andre's ears wouldn't stop ringing. And then he noticed Jervis standing over him, grabbing the professor and Tomas by the collars and pulling them out onto the ground.

[The Whistler]

Otto simply stared silently up at the burning building as the group strategizes...

...And then was brought rapidly back to the present by the otherworldly shriek coming from the top floor.

"Tomas! Are you well?"

Not waiting for an answer, he opened his jacket, detached the smoke bombs from his belt and the powder horn from his shoulder holster, and decanted a couple of ounces of powder into a glass flask from his pack; corked it, watertight. Nimble, rote movements; almost unconscious. Laid the other flammables on the bank; pulled himself along the rope...

Blast. 16 on the first swim check, 5 on the second. Excuse me while I drown...

...At which point, the world exploded.

The next ten seconds were rather interesting. Looking back on it, the only things Otto could remember with any certainty were a dazzlingly large number of sharp rocks, a hastily scrawled mental note on an haphazardly firing mental circuit--REALLY now this is the sort of thing you should get in shape to avoid isn't it Herr WATCH OUT FOR THAT--and the nagging feeling that he didn't *remember* learning how to doggie paddle, so why had he just...

And then he was on the west bank, and walking back upstream.

[DocBeard]

Despite all of this epic derring do, heroism, and swear words from a Professor...gracious, what will the vicar think...Tomas, somehow, manages to stay asleep.

As Andre reaches the bottom and starts calling for help, Tomas's head lulls on the cranky Professor's shoulder, apperently deciding to use the other man as a sort of pillow, or at least a headboard.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Charles stops dead as the explosion echoes through the woods, stepping behind a tree which he hopes will give him cover from the mill while he counts to two hundred ten by sevens to let the debris come to rest.

After his measured interval he emerges, pushing through the bushes as rapidly as he can back toward the rest of the group.

[yalenusveler]

"He's..asleep on me, not dead, right?" Andre asked Jervis, really wishing the ringing in his ears would stop. For all he knew, what Jervis said next could be "Why yes, we do stock fish paste at this market, would you like some?"...and he'd be none the wiser.

[Kaitou Kage]

Once they'd started talking about swimming, Kuzan had already pulled the chain armor off his head and tossed it on the ground. He was in the process of removing his shirt when the current picked both Charles and Otto up and swept them away.

But before he could dive in after, the priest saw both men clamber to shore a ways downstream. He heaved a sigh of relief, though at the same time felt a bit put out that he couldn't make up the shame of his earlier outburst.

And then, the mill exploded.

Kuzan crouched back and raised an arm to shield his head from the blast, squinting his eyes shut. Once the blast cleared, he thought he heard a cry for help from the other side. He ran to the bank, dove in, and began hauling himself along with the rope.

As one might expect for a priest whose god is a patron of sailors, Kuzan swam like a fish. A less-than-graceful fish, but he still managed to hold his own against the current quite easily. Indeed, if the river worried him at all, the priest showed no signs of it in his expression or his stroke.

Kuzan climbed out on the other side, and scrambled toward the big mercenary who was dragging Tomas and Andre along. "Hells," he muttered, looking the men over. Fortunately, they all seemed all right, less some nasty scratches or two. Tomas, though, seemed in some kind of stupor, a magical sleep.

"Here," the priest offered Jervis, reaching out for Tomas, "Let me help."

[NeoTiamat]

The Abandoned Mill
April 26th, 761, 6:08 PM
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The guard sniffed at Tomas, dragging the heavy Lamordian onto the bank. Jervis was bleeding slightly, a few bits of wood having scored unpleasant gashes during the explosion, but he didn't really seem to notice.

"He'll live." Jervis snarled, making sure Tomas was on the bank before grabbing Andre by the hand and pulling him out. The wiry mercenary cast Kuzan an unfriendly look, then stepped back, letting the priest have full access to the comatose Lamordian.

[OOC: Spot Check]