Ch. 14c. Together Again (all)

[Philulhu]

Ivy had little doubt that this was something new. The creatures that had grabbed her had been much closer to her own size.

[Silver Priest]

1d100

Alex forces himself to remain calm and steadies his gun, planning to fire on either of these creatures if they move towards them with malicious intent. He hopes to avoid doing so, however-- he knows he has limited ammo.

[Mr. Handy]

William goes slack-jawed.

Sanity roll (current level 48) for seeing the creatures:
d%
Sanity loss:
1d8
Idea roll (80% stat) to avoid temporary insanity - failure is good:
d%
Yay! Temporary insanity for me!

[Philulhu]

Oh dear! Update to follow once I know what Jerry is doing!

[Bullfrog]

Sanity 53: 1d100

San Loss 1d8: 1d8

Jerry is terrified beyond words, but keeps himself steady nonetheless. This couldn't be natural, it wasn't right at all, but it was as real as he was and he would have to fight. Jerry raises his gun and fires, not waiting for these awful creatures to make the first move!

Handgun 50%: 1d100

.45 Automatic damage 1d10+2:1d10+2

[Philulhu]

One of the ghoulish creatures swayed as Jerry’s bullet creased its arm but otherwise looked imperturbed. The second creature waved a casual hand in front of itself and the cavern was plunged into near darkness!

In the corridor, the only thought in William’s mind was to get out of this place. This cramped, haunted place with the tunnels and the ungodly creatures! How long had they been down here anyway? It was time they left but the way out was blocked! They’d have to leave by another way, but which? Why was everyone waiting for him to decide?! Hadn’t they been paying attention?! It was this way, wasn’t it?! At least they’d be away from those creatures!!

William is suffering from Claustrophobia and just wants to leave as quickly as possible. He won’t engage in combat unless there is no other way out. Additionally, he cannot now remember the way out so will choose randomly at every junction, starting now… 1d6

As far as he is concerned the way out is the corridor directly opposite the one to the now-darkened organ room. He won’t listen to anyone else who tries to tell him differently, nor allow himself to be taken in a different direction.

[jp1885]

Ivy keeps a tight grip on her lantern; these are no degenerate, easily frightened ape creatures!

“Perhaps discretion is the better part of valour,” she hisses as she backs away. “Let’s find another way out.”

[Silver Priest]

"Indeed," Alex nods. "These things can apparently control the light in here. Form up, as a group back to back," He says, recalling his tine in the service. "Those with guns in the front, William and Ivy in the back. We'll slowly navigate our way out of here, shifting so that whichever way we're going has the firearms in the front in case we encounter a threat."

[Mr. Handy]

"I've gotta get outta here!" cries William, turning around and running in the opposite direction from the organ room.

William has guns too, by the way.

[Philulhu]

I’m going to use the chase rules from 7th edition here as William is running away.

Effective move rates are Alex (8) and Ivy, Jerry & William (all 7). Move is affected by CON (18, 13, 11 and 11 respectively). Turn order is decided by DEX - so Alex is first, followed by Ivy & William (same DEX) and Jerry. Don’t feel you have to wait for your ‘slot’ to post - I’ll work it out in the mix.

I’m not going to follow it slavishly - I might take a few liberties for dramatic effect

I’ll use spoilered text so you can’t see what everyone else is doing if you’re not currently next to them…

Keeper Rolls

Alex 1d20
Ivy 1d20
Jerry 1d20
William (automatic this turn)

Leaving everyone else standing, William sprinted away down a nearby tunnel…

Moments later William found himself at another junction where he quickly took a left turn into another tunnel. He could see another junction ahead…

1d6

[Silver Priest]

"Darn it!" Alex curses--for him. William is having an episode, and despite his caution around the man the officer still felt obligated to help him. Him going off on his own would be near certain death, as he would get lost or fall prey to some dark creature.

He chases after him, hoping to catch up and restrain the man. Hopefully the others would follow him, they could not afford to get separated.

[jp1885]

Hitching up what's left of her skirt, Ivy follows suit and races off after the pair.

[Mr. Handy]

William keeps running, following his instincts.

[Bullfrog]

"William, what the hell are you- get back here!" Jerry gives chase as best he can with his bad leg, hoping that those horrible creatures he had seen weren't coming up behind him. Those things had the home advantage in this hellish tangle of caves, and the one he'd put a hole in didn't seem to perturbed by getting shot in the arm. He had another measure to harm them, that little firebomb he'd put together earlier, but there was only one and Jerry wasn't too confident in his throwing arm at the moment.

[Philulhu]

1d6
1d6

CON

Alex (18) 1d20
Ivy (13) 1d20
Jerry (11) 1d20
William (11) 1d20

William’s desk job clearly wasn’t equipping him for running so it was easy enough for the others to keep pace. He ran past two openings on his left then ran down a short passage and into a room…

OOC:   If you wish, you can explore the openings that William ran past. If so, just say and I’ll tell you what was there. If you carry on read the spoilered text for William below.

The passage opened up into a grotto dominated by an enormous natural column that had been carved into the likeness of a great, coiled serpent with a white crescent symbol upon its forehead formed from pale gemstones. In front of the serpent was a large altar marred by dark stains and decorated with intertwined geometric carvings and runes. Spherical golden censers on stands flanked the altar, each pouring forth clouds of perfumed incense.

OOC:   POW check, please.

[Silver Priest]

"William, stop!" Alex continues to follow him, easily keeping up. Then he notices the serpent and the alter.

1d100

[jp1885]

[44] = 44
POW 75 1d100: [ 44 ] = 44

With bulletproof inhuman monsters with the ability to control light on her tail, Ivy also elects to follow William (the alternative probably being getting lost alone in the tunnels again).

She stops up short, eyes wide, as she enters the grotto.

[Mr. Handy]

William is transfixed.

POW roll (65% stat) in the grotto:
d%

[Bullfrog]

POW 11 (55%): 1d100

Jerry finds a new appreciation for architecture.

[Philulhu]

Alex, Jerry and William watched as a cascade of snakes, from tiny threadsnakes to a huge reticulated Python that dwarfed the investigators themselves, erupted from the carved serpent’s mouth. Each snake bore a white crescent on its forehead and swiftly swarmed across the floor and engulfed them, crawling up their legs, inside and outside their clothes, tongues flicking across skin in hundreds of places at once.

If that wasn’t bad enough, they saw a titanic serpentine tongue pushing it’s way out of the statue’s mouth and flickering towards them, crawling over them and tasting them as if deciding which of them to consume first…

OOC:   SAN roll, please (1/1d4) and gain 2 points of Cthulhu Mythos.

Ivy saw her companions transfixed, writhing and staring at the statue in horror. They were shying away from something but it wasn’t anything that she could see…