Call of Colthulhu: Team One's Adventures

The scuttling continues to intensify, and as Torque steps towards the doors, the whole group hears a snarl and a chattering noise, and a gray, furry limb tipped with gnarled yellow claws suddenly reaches out of the wall around the lower level of the room. More chattering surrounds the group, and a couple more claws emerge from the stonework, followed by the bodies of the bizarre creatures matching the verminkind depicted on the reliefs. They're up to about shoulder height of the group, and have a hunched posture. Their fur, despite being wild and unkempt, does not seem to be dusty or even dirtied - just tangled together into clumps of fuzz. The first one has its eyes fixed on the mask while the rest of the vermin hiss angrily at the ponies. Clicking its teeth, a harsh, screechy keening comes out, varying in pitch and duration, almost - forming a language, it seems, as the vermin screeches on at the ponies.

For the Mask only:

"AAaaaand that's why I'm in the air." Flashpoint hovers towards the others. "You know, I can't imagine they're too happy that you're taking their Idol."

All at once, Torque drew himself up, suddenly seeming to fill the room (without quite getting bigger) as the mask worked its magic. His voice took on a different timber, the mask channeling itself into his throat as his cords and tongue worked unbidden.

"SILENCE!" he bellowed, his voice sounding distinctly masculine through Torque's mouth. He began to speak in the same clicks and screeches the rats used, trying to communicate. <I have chosen this pony as my vessel!> he chittered. <I am your god, the High Mask,> he said, his voice low and threatening. <BOW,> he growled, the room darkening ominously.

checks:

The two at the back immediately fall forward, prostrating themselves, but the front vermin remains standing - though the shiver that passes through it is unmistakeable. The lead vermin chitters nervously, looking back at the two on the ground. The lead vermin speaks quickly to the vermin behind it, their conversing speed picking up considerably such that Torque's ears, and even the Mask's magical senses, fail to capture it entirely. The Mask catches a few snippets here and there, mentions of <The good lady>, <Pantheon>, and finally, after a short moment's deliberation, <pilgrimage>.

In a rapidfire series of clicks, growls and screeches, the front vermin seems to come to a decision, and bows down to join its prostrating companions. However, suddenly, behind the party, the door begins to swing shut - and the back two vermin stiffen visibly before pouncing on the front vermin, knocking its head against the ground as another vermin emerges from the stone walls, screeching almost incoherently save the garbled words <Deceived> and <Capture>. The two vermin rise, and jerkily begin to advance on the group.

"Hmm," the mask hummed through Torque's throat. It watched with dispassionate interest through Torque's eyes as it contemplated the next course of action.

<Please,> it said dismissively, waving Torque's hoof haughtily. <There is no need for such violence. I will see your "good lady", but not as a prisoner!> it growled, the room once again darkening as a glow formed around the mask. <Take us to her. At once,> it said, stomping the floor and causing a disproportionate rumble in the floor.

checks and OOC:

The knocked out vermin jerks suddenly, and the other vermin scatter instinctively. The closing door stops, and with a rustle, the fallen vermin rises up, its movement abrupt and unnatural. Chittering in a way that seems almost like mocking laughter, it shambles, with surprising speed, up the stairs and beckons with a claw. The rest of the vermin, who have grown unsettlingly silent in the duration it took for the knocked down vermin to scale the stairs, begin marching behind the group, almost shepherding them, though by their small statures they look more like a furry entourage.

"Wonderful!" 'Torque' said cheerfully. "We should be seeing your Deep Secret shortly," he announced, before relinquishing Torque's voice to its proper owner.

"Ah, ooookay? Well, at least we have a guide now," Aurora had no real idea on how to respond to what had just happened...It was an impressive display of illusion magic, but she hadn't really been able to understand the exchange between Darling and the vermin. Still, they were headed to Secret, so that was a win. She trotted along, letting the rats lead her for now.

Flashpoint stares after the group, wary of the vermin. "Why does every single thing that happens down here make the situation worse?"

"...I won't lie, that felt really weird," Torque said as he started following the rat leader. "Having my body moving without my will, speaking words I didn't understand...Not painful, mind you, but not exactly pleasant. A couple lingering thoughts to discuss on our...trip."

"1. Did anyone else find that knocked out rat getting up to be...unnatural? You'd almost think that was possessed or something. Aurora, can you tell if there's some magic going on there?
2. Assuming we actually are being led to Deep Secret, if an altercation breaks out, will the rat folk be siding with her or with Darling?
3. ...You guys REALLY should drink these bottles of Eloquence's elixir before we meet Deep Secret. I don't know if an antidote to poison or a mind control prevention or what, but I think the offer of drinks was more for our benefit than hers."

"I didn't want to say anything, but it was a bit creepy, but I can't really get a read on these things to begin with. I can try and scan that one, though, see what happens...As for your second? I don't know. I hope we just got our own personal army, but if not...Well, I don't figure they'll be too tough to get out of our way..." Aurora spoke a bit quietly, just in case. "As for the third...If it prevented mind control of any sort, I don't think Darling would have been able to borrow your body, but...We'll see, you know? Just...give me a moment first, okay?" She blinked, checking that shambling rat's aura and such, seeing if there was anything unusual about it.

---

Rolling Arcana on the rat that is acting all...Weird.
1d20+15 = 8+15 = 23

Oh, hello mind control.

...She can't tell much more. It's obvious that the rat is being compelled by an external force - a fairly competent one too, if the complexity of the magical influence is anything to go by - but it's hard to decipher the magical trace without more extensive preparation. She can also tell that the mind control is largely in place because, well, the vermin is technically unconscious. Whatever is controlling the vermin is stringing it along like a puppet.

"It's...Unconcious, actually. Something's got it going under their power, not its own. Kind of like a puppet. or something. The rat itself is basically sleepwalking," Aurora explained, thinking for a bit. "Uh, can't tell much else unless you wanna try and talk him into taking five so I can set something up more effectively."

"Well, considering that whoever's controlling the rat leader probably isn't going to stop to let you remove their mind control, that's not going to happen. Also, the reason the other rats aren't attacking us right now is because they believe the rat leader is obeying the mask; trying to restrain him would...ruin the narrative." As Torque followed the rats out of the chamber, he tried to get a better look of where they were going (and looking up, never forget to look up).

Rolling Perception...8 (1d20) + 8 - 10 (Near Blindness) = 6 (w/ Nightwatch)

"Hmm...Darling, I'm not entirely sure how your sight works (if it's a function of the mask's eyeholes or of the host), but could you try taking a look where I'm looking? I stared right at a darkness-emitting artifact (still not sure how that works), and my sight is still recovering. If you see anything resembling trees or something on the ceiling, let me know."

Torque, while recovering, finds himself still slightly impaired when it comes to noticing more than just basic shapes. The group is being led further down, but otherwise there isn't much to go about. It gets progressively darker, but eventually one of the vermin digs a black candle out of a pouch and lights it, illuminating the way with an eerie blue candle.

Torque gradually recovers from his brush with blindness. The penalty is now only -5.

Eventually the party comes to a landing with no more stairs to go down. The vermin entourage - which seems to have doubled in size since the room - scurry forward and push open the one crude metal door set into the wall, piling inside and leaving only the leading vermin and the party. Bowing crookedly, the vermin sweeps an arm in a gesture for the party to continue through the door - and promptly crumples to the ground, like a puppet with cut strings. Whatever is past the door is shrouded in darkness, but just visible to the party is the engravings on the doorway - almost too faint to notice at first glance, but after staying still for a few moments it's obvious that there are microscopic markings that resemble trees on the doorframe.

"Well, I'm guessing those engravings are some way for Deep to spy on anyone approaching, but I think the rat entourage effectively removed any degree of stealth we were going for anyways." Torque tried to detect any magic coming off the engravings.

Rolling Arcana for tree engravings...18 (1d20) + 7 = 25

And there was the puppet analogy coming full-circle. Not unexpected, but still slightly disconcerting. Though, she nodded when Torque spoke up again, remembering something they'd heard. "Yeah, didn't that bartender say the trees have eyes or something like that? That may have been what she was hinting at." She figured she'd regret it, but she finally took one of the bottles that the bartender, and now Torque, had offered, drinking it. The taste was interesting, but she wasn't particularly considering it. "More darkness, probably supernatural in origin again, if I had to guess." Aurora stepped forward, glancing around, trying to keep her eyes open and seeing if there was anything interesting about this door or the room beyond.

---

Arcana to check for enchantments on the door:
1d20+15 = 15+15 = 30

Perception to try and make out anything useful about the room:
1d20+8 = 11+8 = 19 ...Eagle Eye and Nightwatch would probably help though.

What both Torque and Aurora can tell is that the door seems to be alive. As in, it's a living organism. Somehow. It's not even like the case with the Giver's gem and the Mask, with a soul locked into an object - it's just naturally alive. To the best of Torque's understanding the engravings are functionally like organs, facilitating some kind of body function, and Aurora can tell that it allows the doorframe to have sensory input - they're eyes.

Aurora's attempt to see into the darkness is met with only a little success - it's very dark and murky, but muted through the darkness, like seeing through a shroud, she can see a few large glowing shapes that resemble mushrooms and smaller dark shapes moving around under the glowing shapes. She's reasonably certain that the darkness works like a curtain, obscuring vision from the outside but not if the group enters the room.

Flashpoint does his best to restrain himself- flight or fight is kicking in rather strongly, and it's taking every ounce of his self-control not to hit the rat thing and run. As patiently and calmly as he can manage, he flaps his way up the doors, barely listening to what the other two say about them, and tries pushing them open.

The doors, already opened somewhat by the vermin, part easily under only a little force. Should Flashpoint enter, he would be confronted with a significantly large open area peppered with groves of some form of bioluminescent mushroom. A small number of the vermin are tending to the mushrooms. The groves of mushroom grow denser further inside the open area, until at almost the center there is almost a wall of fungi in a circular grove.

"Well, they know we're here now if the entourage didn't give it away." Aurora chuckled a bit, heading in after Flashpoint and wondering who their host was here. Whoever it was, they were probably waiting for them in that grove. She approached it...No sense in keeping them waiting any longer.

"...My parents would have a field day trying to classify what type of organism that door is. Is it connected to something larger or...." Torque gave a small shudder and followed the others into the room. "Right then, let's make a good first impression, shall we?"

...He felt his eyesight was slowly returning, and decided to glance up at the ceiling of the grove for good measure.

Rolling Perception...3 (1d20) + 8 - 5 (Near Blindness) = 6.

Looking up, Torque can see that a myriad of other luminescent fungus, glowing hues of red, yellow, blue and green (and more) sprout from the cave-like ceiling, giving an almost natural lighting to the area - there are still some spots that are dark, but the entirety of the open area - more like a cavern, now that Torque thinks about it - is bathed in a soft, multi-colored glow. At the center of the yawning cavern space, above the dense grove, a stone totem or statue like object is carved into the ceiling, resembling a serpent of some description.

As the group walks past the mushrooms, they feel a curious sensation of serenity overcome them - perhaps it's the natural setting, or the strangely idyllic imagery of the glowing garden of mushrooms being tended to by vermin in gray colored robes, and the trickle of subterranean water sources in the background, but despite the suspense and mystery of the situation, there's a feeling of peace in the room.

The vermin look up occasionally to stare at the group as they pass, but as soon as they catch sight of the High Mask, they quickly avert their eyes and return to their duties. The group's entourage continues to trail a short distance behind the group.

As the group approaches the grove, they notice more vermin begin poking their heads out of the cavern's walls, even out of the ground, seemingly without having to break through the surface - simply melting out of the earth to look curiously at the group. There are others, too - diamond dogs in particular, wearing robes, cloaks, and some just draping cloths over their body, some carrying tools of labour and some weapons, standing around the grove, and when the party come close they raise their weapons, pointing at the party. Some notice the mask and quickly lower their weapons, but a few remain steadfast.

"State purpose." A diamond dog with a large halberd and a black iron chestpiece over a plain tunic grunts. "Sage Grove admits no visitors."

It seems it would have acted regardless of the party's answer, but a voice within the grove says, "Rocket - they are guests."

The hauntingly beautiful voice gives the diamond dog pause, and after a few moments they lower the weapons, standing aside.