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Final Stage of the Catacombs

Scene details

Setting: The Star Chasers arrive at the deepest part of the catacombs beneath the manor of La Crima. They discover that not all of the cultists had been driven off...

Log

It's time to venture into The Catacombs once again. Ruidosa is happy to participate in an old pastime of hers with her friends.

The Catacombs is a longer trek down now. Each floor that has been completed has a big red 'X' painted next to the passageway into it. Left there by Tranquila as a safety marker to note 'hey, should be safe...ish now'. Some things that seem different are that there's more zombies on the way down. They're slow, easy fodder, and some are even missing upper limbs, lost long ago due to rot. Each zombie has the same kind of tubing-slash-'life support system' as the ones encountered in earlier adventures.

That is to say, push overs that are easy to take down on the way down. But then suddenly... there's no more stairs. The catacombs end down with a flat, grimy floor on which a few inches of fetid, blackish water sit, the walls a little damp, and growing with some kind of underground moss usually seen in deep, damp caves.

"Huh... are we at the bottom?" Ruidosa asks as she kind of taps a foot down into the fetid water, making small splashes but trying to gauge if there's more hiding under the water. Tap, splash splash, tap.

There's a big entrance down here to two wooden, once ornanate but now doors, the damp water level having eaten away at the bottom of the doors, causing them to rot from the bottom up and swell. The doors actually seem locked however! Which seems strange for the catacombs, no door has been locked, or the lock's rusted enough over time they just...break. When used.

Ruidosa stands where more stairs should be and scratches her head. "Huh..."


  It has been a while since the group went through the catacombs, hasn't it? It's always awe-inspiring to see what lies beyond the La Crima manor that's relatively unknown. Maybe this time, they can help resolve some mysteries for the Lady.

  Reize cannot help but grin at the big red 'X' painted, knowing that it's Tranquila's handiwork to help out the group. The path that do have zombies are thankfully easy to kick away. The boy cannot help but find that tube strange.

  Now they are what seems to be the bottommost part of the floor. He eyes the blackish water and takes in the surroundings. "...I wonder if this is the end." As he approaches the entrance, he eyes the two wooden doors.

  "...Locked?"
 


 Ivo smiles fondly at the sight of Ruidosa splashing about in the grimy water, an image evocative to him of a child playing in a puddle on a city street. The encounter with the vampire hunters seems to have shed him of prior fears or mild resentments, even though the Frog Grenade Incident is recent history. Whatever terror he once felt at the mysterious threat of vampire curses is outweighed by the knowledge that detestable "hunters" of sapient beings exist. Any sentiment that approximates prejudice against vampires now seems to him unacceptable, lest he in any way resemble their murderous foes.
 "Let me try the sensor," their older friend supplies, drawing Hauteclare as he steps forward. "It seemed to work well enough in that temple in the Misty Forest."
 He'd been hanging back for the most part and letting Reize handle the zombies, judging the risk of letting his blade fly in these confines to be greater than any benefit of assistance in combat, but now he moves, lining his weapon's hilt up in the vicinity of the doors and attempting to check for any magical seals or traps.
 "If there's a strong reading, we might want to try a subtler approach than just breaking this down..."

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Improvized detect magic
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 8).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Helping Ivo with his magic check
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 5. This is a failure (by 5).

Ruidosa seems much better after the hunter incident. Or at least the idea of Catacomb diving snapped her out of any fearful reservations she had. There shouldn't be hunters in the catacombs. No one's been down here for hundreds of years at this point. Zombies also fall easily and dispatched easily on the way down. Ruidosa sometimes helps Reize with a bolt of dark energy. The Zombies seem unusually restless, if still horridly weak.

Ruidosa frowns. "I guess. We're at the bottom." she says. "I wonder where this water came from..." she asks. As if the catacombs are not under a marshy area and should be self explanatory.

Finally noticing the door, Ruidosa watches as Ivo attempts to check for magic. No roll was really needed. It detects magic alright. It detects it. Over there... over here. If this things look like a compass, it'd probably be ''spinning''. It's hard to tell if the door itself is 'trapped' with magic butt there is a strong pull in that direction, regardless. But for some reason the sensor seems to be indicating 'beyond' the door rather than the door itself.

Ruidosa blinks and places her head to the door and frowns a little. "Ugh."

"There's a lot of magical buzz in the air. Isn't there?" she asks as she moves her head away and looks over to Reize and Ivo. "The door doesn't look sturdy...." she says.

"Would it hurt to just... break part of it down?" she saks Ivo and Reize.


  Upon Ruidosa noting that the group could just break it down, the young man has a large grin on his face. "Now we're talking!" He hefts his boomerang from his waist, lifting it up to hang over his shoulder. He looks at the door with furrowed eyebrows.

  "It shouldn't be too strong, else we'd need Anna for this."

  With a quick step, the boy lunges in and swipes across the lock, "HA!" He gives an upward slash and a downward slash of the boomerang to take the blockade down.
 


 "Hmm..."
 Ivo's sensor is generally accurate, but the challenge lies in interpreting it, which is more of an art than a science. Today, however, his intuitions likely hit the mark.
 "The magic seems the lie beyond the door rather than within the door itself," he reports, "which I take to imply the absence of any magical traps here. I think it's safe to-- oh."
 Seeing that Reize is already lunging in, Ivo smoothly steps aside and, in a gallant gesture as though holding open a door for a winsome maiden, half-bows and sweeps out his arm grandly, allowing their fearless leader to do all the work and, presumably, take all the risk.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Providing Reize moral support
Roll(s): 18. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 8).

Ruidosa La Crima blinks as Reize breaks the lock and--- nothing happens. Seems the door was trapped. Or if it was, the mechanism is so old and broken it didn't go off. Ruidosa looks for any arrow slots or similar places blades could extend and finds nothing-- she's used to the catacombs and it's traps by now-- and steps through the door way into the beyond.

Remember the big mechanism and it's tubes into the walls? There's tubes in a large, central chamber along the walls. They glow some sort of unearthly red through muddied glass ports on the tubes down here. This is clearly the source of all the magic. The tubes all terminate down here and around underground.

The red light illuminates the area in a dull red glow. Water still lines the floor of this chamber- but there's a set of stairs up ahead, leading out of the water, revealing what was once a red carpet is probably under the water.

The red carpet leads to a throne, to which, all the tubes terminate into some area of the back of.

On the throne sits a desiccated, male corpse, dressed in old old finery, a once regal blue coat and red cloak. The corpse is neatly seated in the throne it's head bent down to the floor.

When the party approaches, the dead, black holes in it's face where eyes once we're glow bright red and there is a voice, which appears to emanate from the throne rather than the corpse itself, as if some sort of piezoelectric efect. "Inter---lopers. *Zbbbtttt* Why are you here? Why are you insistent on destroying my compatriots. My collogues? *bzzzzztttttttt*"

There's a pause. Zombies begin to shamble, from the darker areas of the room behind the throne, they appear to stop, however. It's like this... thing? Is controlling them.

"I won't---bzzzzt---let you evict us further. That---bzzzzzzzzzt--- vampire may have chased out everyone on the surface, once upon a ---bzzzzztime."

"But no further...."

 > THE FOREVER KING - Leader of The Forever Cult. He wanted immortality. Well. He has it. Kind of. If you squint hard enough.

The Zombies seem to shamble forward more quickly as if on command finally.

"O...oh no." Says Ruidosa. Who has some known history of the Catacombs and the cult that used to exist on the surface. In the manor before her mother came and cleared it of evil cultists. At leasr in passing.


  "Buh?" Reize stares as nothing seemed to have triggered. "... Well.." He straightens, now looking proud of himself since no traps launched out in response to his strike. "That was easy peasy!" He struts his way forward, making their way through the door to pass beyond it.

  What greets them are the tubes in a large central chamber. A sickly glow of the red hue through the glass ports earns a shocked look. "...It's still active! .. Is this the source for those zombies?" He is not one to be able to detect the presence of magic, but those tubes definitely look out of place.

  With the water still lining the floor, the boy approaches up the stairs. He looks at what appears to be a red carpet, albeit underwater. Upon it leading to a throne, he looks at the regal looking corpse.

  "...Maybe he's no longe----"

  The eyes glow with a strange voice.

  "...Okay, he's up."

  The boy frowns and he looks around to see the zombies shambling. He draws his other boomerang as he adopts a fighting stance. "Let's clear them out, everyone!"

  He takes the charge to start sweeping kick the zombies around him.
 


 "I don't suppose you're storing Faruja in that pendant of yours," Ivo quips to Reize as the Forever King commands his hordes to advance, the curious magitechnician allowing his gaze to rove about the glowing tubes even as mortal peril looms. "We could use a little undead-turning right about now."
 But if no knightly ratmen are forthcoming, the Cosmopolitan shall have no choice but to properly wield his elesphere-enhanced blade.
 "Careful, Rui," he cautions, playful tone fading from his voice. "I'm going to deploy some firepower."
 So saying, he loads a red marble-like sphere in his sword's pommel and, with a flourish, allows its blade to detach from his hilt and sweep in a wide arc, counting on Reize's sweeping kicks to handle the first wave and aiming for the second close behind in the hopes of giving the boy some breathing room.
 "Reize!" Ivo calls. "Can you break through and neutralize His Majesty? I can try to stave off his merry minions with fire in the meantime...!"

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Magitech Fencing Art: Flame Wheel (elemental advantage)
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 4).

Ruidosa is quickly sketching her tome as she frustratedly as she slams the tome closed and calls forth a few bolts of dark energy into the air towards the horde of zombies and--it's a lot of zombies, moving more purposely than the shambling, wandering aimless ones in the stairs earlier.

They try to flank Reize and crowd around him, but the sweeping kicks knock them back, giving him more space- some sent tumbling to the ground, some down the stairs into that fetid water, falling backwards into it.

Ivo warns Ruidosa, who's happy for the help (and warning of flame being used) as Ivo aims for the usual weakness hit of undead-- and these undead are no different, being sliced by the flaming flame spin and falling down dead as the first wave seems either handled or distracted with being pushed back.

The Forever King may be undead, but is intelligent, it can hear Ivo's command.

So the throne itself starts emitting some kind of orbs from the side, some sort of magic attack towards the boy Ivo is speaking to-- that's Reize, and Ruidosa. They move slowly, but are numerous.

"Interlopers. Bzzzzt. You can't kill which lives forever. I will outlast you. Bzzzt. I will outlast your progeny." says the corpse from it's throne. It never moves however. It's most likely reliant on it's magic infused throne life support system.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Quick on Feet
Roll(s): 2. Total result is 2. This is a failure (by 8).

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Attempting to assist allies by slicing the magic orbs Nier-style
Roll(s): 17. Total result is 17. This is a success (by 7).


  Given the crowd, Reize adopted his more defensive stance to start keeping the zombies at bay. Definitely best to be prepared on knocking them away.

  "It would had been nice to have Faruja, here." He furrows his eyebrows, "... He had to return to Revonus to handle some important business." Thinking back, it was rather odd how secretive Faruja was when it came to his work at Revonus, especially for the engagement that he had to deal with.

  Nevertheless, Reize's eyes narrow at the zombies. The flames from the dancing blade brings relief! He looks back at Ivo with a grin. "Got it!" He starts to run off towards the group of the zombies, leaping up to start kicking then in mid-air...

  "Whhh----"

  The orbs fly off and belt the boy, sending him flying back towards Ivo and Ruidosa's end. "Guhhh!" He rolls on the ground and then he kicks up back on his feet. "Whooah!" Reize is, however, thankful for Ivo slicing the others flying his way.
 

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Nanananananaana Bat Dodge!
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 20. This is a success (by 10).


 While Ivo can't keep up with Reize's swift advance, meaning that he can't stop the boy from being blown back by the first onslaught of the orbs, the Cosmopolitan can use the vestiges of the flame that still wreathes Hauteclare's flying blade to counter the rest of the oncoming assault. The aether charging the weapon seems to destabilize or overload the magical attacks, bursting them like bubbles as the blade sweeps through. But the sword is now drained and Ivo is forced to call it back to the hilt, giving the zombies time to recover.
 "Rui!" he calls. "The fire's out -- can you break through!?"
 Knowing that Reize needs a moment to gather himself, the magitech fencer elects to take a moment to reload a new elesphere and prepare to fend off another wave, but hopes that the vampire is able to find an open amidst the chaos herself, with the path temporarily cleared. Ivo can't exploit it, but maybe she can.
 ...And she sure does dodge well!

Reize lands on the dry portion of ground, luckily, as he rolls back to his feet as his attempt to dodge at least one of the orbs fails and zombies use the chance to try to lunge at Reize on his recovery, they want to munch on him it seems, wanting to turn him into a snack.

Ivo clears the orbs and stops the assault for now, as Zombies eventually make a break, trying to get close enough to lunge at him-- since the first, closer wave is dead now in the way beings should be dead. Not...walking around. With tubes on their back.

Ruidosa, who sees Zombies trying to make a snack of Reize, takes offense to this. (For reasons.) and turns into a bat, dodging her own orbs as she flies through the air towwards Reize and turns back into a humanoid to throw a quick shield around her and Reize. She frowns and closes her eyes a moment.

"My mom.. chased out a cult that used to live in the manor and the upper part of the catacombs when she moved in. They we're doing. Awful experiments about immortality. I guess. This is the result. Some sort of...massive life support system." she frowns and eyes The Forever King.

"Interlopers." it buzzes again. "When you die... bzzzzt.... here... today... you will join my everlasting bzzzzzt army." the piezoelectric like effect from the throne emits.

Ruidosa takes assessment. "If we cut those tubes into the ... thing. Shouldn't that do.. something!?" she yells from behind her shield she's hiding from Zombies with Reize---who can leave the bubble of dark energy anytime he'd like.


  Unfortunately, that orb about knocked the wind out of Reize, enough to disorient him and needing to get his footing back. This leaves him prone to becoming a target for the zombies. Even with Ivo preparing to fend off the wave, Reize feels like that he's seeing double.

 Ahhh! Why did they just multiple all of the sudden?!"

 That blast did a number on his head.

 However, Ruidosa comes to the rescue as she gets within close range and projects the magical shield. There is a bit of reminisence as he looks at his situation. He smiles, "Thanks, Rui..."

 He frowns, then he looks at Ivo, "Looks like we'll have to put an end to this experiment." He starts to take an aggresive stance, furrowing his eyebrows. We'll see!"

 With a well of energy manifesting, the aether spirals from within and he takes off in a burst. "Hunting Hawk!" He is flying past Ruidosa, dashing past the zombies in a burst. A large dust trail kicks off, then a slash follows suit in striking them.

  While doing that, he aims to strike at one of the tubes along the walls.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Hunting Hawk - Need For Speed
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 5).


 "Right. I'm counting on you, chief."
 Ivo, nodding to Reize before the shielded boy plunges in again, reaches carefully for a separate small pocket in his blue cloak and withdraws a sparking orb, effervescent with shifting colors rather than solid as his elespheres usually are. The product of his and Argent's research into the Heavenly Crowned Beetle, the rare insect bred by the druids of Vaeltrandia to offer sunlight to Kernunnos, it is hybridized wind and fire element, veritable bottled lightning.
 "Now then..."
 If he was able to overload the magical spheres and "pop" them to protect his friends, he might be able to not only slash at the tubes, but overload and disrupt the system preserving the Forever King in the process. With that thought in mind, Ivo attempts to send Hauteclare spiraling out again, ignoring the zombies that close in on him in the hopes that a shock to the King's system, literally and figuratively, might interrupt his control over them. And if not, and those minions get in close...
 Well, maybe they'll be receptive to persuasion?

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Advanced Magitech Fencing Art: Heavenly Thunderbolt Blade! ...to the tubes.
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Falcata to one of the tubes.
Roll(s): 3. Total result is 3. This is a failure (by 7).

Ruidosa La Crima joins in the assault, dropping the shield when Reize is able to move and not see double again and attempts to throw a dark energy blade through the air, screaming "FALCATA!" along the way, the spinning blade hitting.....the wall, burying deep before dissipating with a unimpressive cloud of dark mist. She curses under her breath in something resembling Spanish. (But don't tell her mom...!), but Reize has heard at least ''one'' of those words she mutters before.

Reize and Ivo have better luck, Reize's Hunting Hawk severs one of the tubes and Ivo's thunderbolt blade slices the tube, also sending a shock through the tube into the throne, causing some sort of obscene electric interference to cackle over to the sound emitters in the throne. Bzzzzttcarackle.

This seems to be neutralize the ability of the The Forever King to speak, and also seems to disrupt the control of the Zombies who seem to go back into a 'shamble around aimlessly' mode suddenly, at least, momentarily.

Two more tubes are left. Another crackle and bzzzzzzt from the speakers suggests The Forever King is trying to voice it's distaste for this course of action, most likely-- the corpse doesn't move, still at all, but it's eyes are still glowing red, as weird, red mist escapes from the tubes and up into the air- though it doesn't cloud vision much-- and appears harmless enough on it's own without something to process the magical ether escaping.


  After coming into a halt from his blurring rush, he lets out a huff and then he looks back at his handiwork. "Great! We got a cou---" Bzzztcarackle! With a sharp shift of his head, he can see the source of the obscene electrical interference, "Whoa!"

 He looks back at Ruidosa, "We're doing it! Ready to put a stop to this cult once and for all?!" He winds his hands back, and then he glares at the Forever King.

 "Your reign of terror ends here!"

  The boy takes a leap back, lobbing both of his boomerangs outward. They start ricocheting around the walls, moving out to strike against one of the two tubes.
 

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Ricochet Smash
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).


 "Where there's lightning--"
 With a flick of his wrist, Ivo maintains control of his flying blade, the faltering zombies give him space and time to continue his assault. As Reize unleashes his Ricochet Smash, the fabled OP assist attack of another realm, the Cosmopolitan seems struck with inspiration. Through careful attention to both his environment and the sensor on his hilt, he realizes that in the wake of the lightning coursing through his sword, the air about it begins to pressurize as it does during a storm. As the fire aspect of the aether expends itself, the wind aspect actually strengthens. In the frenzy of battle, suddenly flashing back to Priel's ability to chain her own elemental attacks together, he realizes that this provides its own opportunity.
 "--there's thunder!"
 And seeking to harness that fulminating impact, Ivo sends Hauteclare's blade whirling to the other side of the throne, seeking to slash at the remaining tube and shatter it with a cacophanous final blast of wind, expending the lingering aether that imbues Hauteclare.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Sparking new Magitech Fencing Art: Thunderous Fulmination!
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).

Reize throws his boomerangs at the walls, which ricochet back in the proper angles to slice through one of the tubes..... and Ivo spins the blade away and uses the final burst of wind within the force to cause another tube to rupture, if not break off completely.

"*bzzzzzt* Nooooooo... you can't...." the red eyes begin to dim. "...bzzzzzt beat..." the eyes go dark and the voice slows down, as if on a slow record. "Mmmeeeeeeeeee.............." before everything falls silent.

Well Silent, except for the shuffling of zombies. Some do try to lunge at all of the heroes, but they are pushovers again without a leader explicitly guiding them in some manner. Some even bump into one another and fall over, sort of writhing on the ground.

"We should. um. Put them down. Probably." she says as she Falacta's into a zombie trying to lunge at her, slicing it in two at the waist as she 'ewwws' at this.

"I wonder how impressed mom with be..."


  Upon the destruction of all of the tubes, the group are treated to the sight of the Forever King becoming no more. His last defiant cry, as weak as it is, rings in his mind. The boy stares at the figure falling. However, this leaves them with the zombies, which are trying to lunge around, including at them.

 Reize starts kicking some of them and he turns over to see the corner of his head.

 "Oh! I found something!"

 Reize approaches an old chest, opening it up.

 He raises it into the air.

 It is a crimson hookshot with a tube!

>>> Reize has gained a Hookshot (Tube)

 Of course, there is a remnant of the aether from Ivo's earlier blast that echos.

 It shatters.

>>> Reize has lost a Hookshot (Tube)

 ...
 ...

  The boy hangs his head low, letting down a comical trail of tears. "...It's not fair."
 


 Ivo, as he idly slashes at the remaining zombies who have lost their direction, fails to notice Reize's tragedy, as he is focused entirely on the question that Ruidosa has raised. As one wrist lightly flicks, sending Hauteclare dancing through the air to dispatch the milling remnants of their foes, the other hand reaches up to scratch his chin thoughtfully, his lips broadening into a wide grin, his eyes dancing with delight.
 "I'll have to regale her with the tale of my heroics promptly," he remarks. "I won't even have to embellish them much this time. Truly, there is no greater treasure than her affection and praise."
 ...Though he will help the others look for other treasure once they're finished with the zombies. Maybe there's something else that Reize desperately needs that remains unbroken. Like, I don't know, some hair gel.
 Then again, Ivo hopes not, as he does want to see Argent try taming that hair of Reize's herself.