Round 34 Transcript

At The base of a crumbling stone tower, the pressure shifts from waiting to immediate risk. The ward answers the party's presence with a fresh pulse through the stone and no one can mistake it for safety. The nearest sign of danger is now Skeletons: Undead remnants of the tower's original defenders, now animated by dark magic to endlessly guard their ancient home.. Someone has to answer that change now.

The runes pulse again, slower this time—some dark magic's heartbeat thudding in the stone. The pit drops away beneath me with a sound like tearing cloth, and I fall into blackness that swallows everything but the sudden echo of my own voice. This is what they call 'unplanned.' The floor above groans as if waking from long sleep. Something shifts below me, scraping against stone. Fine. Let them find their way down here. I'm not waiting alone in whatever this is.

The air grows thick with a chill that seems to emanate from the very stones themselves, raising the fine hairs on my arms as I stand at the base of this crumbling tower. A heavy, oppressive silence hangs in the shadowed chamber, broken only by the occasional skitter of small creatures in the darkness above. Varrika's tension is palpable behind me, her crossbow string creaking slightly as she scans the gloom beyond our circle of flickering torchlight.
I can feel Varrika's unease mirroring my own. This place feels ancient and wrong, like a wound that has never truly healed. My gaze drifts from Varrika to the stonework and then down into Jeane's pit, where her voice echoes up through the silence. What in the seven hells was that sound? It was almost like... I trail off, my thoughts racing. The runes are feeding something, I think. Something dark and powerful. A shiver runs down my spine as I consider the implications. If we are right about what lies at the heart of this place, retrieving the Time-Splitting Sword just became far more dangerous than any of us could have imagined.

I manage to light my torch, the flickering flames casting eerie shadows across the pit walls. I peer over the edge, trying to catch a glimpse of Jeane below. "Jeane?" I call out, my voice echoing in the darkness. "Are you alright?"

My heart pounds as I scan the pit's walls for any sign of movement or hidden exits. The last thing we need is for Jeane to be trapped down there with whatever might be lurking in the depths. I take a step back, my mind racing. We can't afford to alert the skeletons above, but we also can't leave Jeane stranded. I glance up at Varrika and Seraphine, hoping they have a plan. "Any ideas?" I ask, keeping my voice low. "We need to get her out of there before those runes activate again."

This tower is more than abandoned. It's hungry. Those runes aren't decorative—they're teeth. [to Varrika] Light those torches and mark the floor in a pattern we can follow back if needed. I don't trust anything in this place that doesn't have us looking at it directly. [to all] We move as one, slow and steady. Merrin, keep your eyes on the ceiling for any movement up there. Jeane? Talk to me. What do you see down there? [private thought] This is bad. The wards are pulsing with something alive, and now we've got a sister trapped below us in god-knows-how-deep pit. Standard operating procedure would be to back out and regroup, but if those skeletons are already on the move...