Bill steps back and watches the runes do their thing and thinks to himself that those words sure are familiar, yet he is not quite sure from where he may have heard or seen them before..
He looks on as the runes continues to move about..

''Ah, that's rubbish,'' Sidd exclaims eventually. ''I won't go and catch what Del got by touching anything! Let us go down the stairs instead.''

With prudence in hand, you retreat from the ensigiled door and delve deeper. From the landing, you descend ten feet to another one and then ten more for to the fourth with the switchback having been the first.

Wide stone steps descend into a long hall. The walls are decorated with elaborate tile mosaics depicting ceremonies to fiends. The walls are slick with condensation and black algae. The condensation runs in rivulets and collects in a long, brackish pool set in the center of the hall.

OOC All PCs make a luck check.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:02, Mon 29 July 2013.

17:19, Today: Dourdoff rolled 16 using 1d20. Bill Luck Check .
17:19, Today: Dourdoff rolled 13 using 1d20. Dourdoff Luc

ooc: finn 19, nyll 11

sorry phone post

''This is... completly... disgusting.'' Zar utters, leaving it unclear wether he refers to the mosaic images or the black algae and the rivulets of vile water.

09:51, Today: Levkojen rolled 4,16 using d20+1,d20+1. Luck for Zar, Sidd.

Virgil and Milton say nothing as the group descends the stairway.  The hair on the back of their necks prickles equally, as though something bad is about to happen and it may happen to either of them.  They glance around uneasily, but when they spot Zar the feeling subsides.  He wears an aura of rotten luck that makes theirs feel less ominous.

Luck checks: Virgil d20+1=6, Milton d20=6

The Red Dwarves do their collective best to stay out of the muck.  Felix seems especially worried about it possibly staining his boots irreparably.

Josh rolled 7,11,9 using d20,d20-2,d20-1. Luck: Dave, Arnie, Felix.

As luck would have it, Bill, Finn, and Sidd form a trio of unlikely brothers, all feeling as they do a strange compulsion to peer into the pool. They don't feel like they're being tugged so much as they intuit that this would be the right thing to do. The others simply don't give a toss unless they have strong feelings about brackish pools.

Those without compulsions peer about the room. It has four nooks, each with its own hooded robe that have, visible even from a distance, silver-threaded sigils. It also has, more saliently, two mosaics celebrating the exploits of chaos cultists. That old man back at your village was right. Evil does still fester on the accursed hill. The two dude bros at the center are rockin' out.

You can almost hear the steady assault of layered guitar and menacing vocals:

You take a mortal man,
And put him in control
Watch him become a god,
Watch peoples heads a'roll
A'roll...

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes,
Swaying to the Symphony...
Of Destruction

Yeah, you could get into that.

Sidd thinks of Delphi. Surely her first steps would have drawn her towards that pool, he says to himself. She always had been prone to stare into things. Unconsciously his steps follow the route she would have taken and he goes to the pool, to peer into its depths.

Zar meanwhile looks disapprovingly at the mosaics and the other features of the room. Clearly the images are depicting the worship of Chaos. A bleeding skull scepter seems to play a dominant role, and a man with a horned helmet is sacrificing an innocent maiden. What a vile act! And it lets loose hordes of Chaos from a pit which might very well be the waterlogged pool right before their feet!

''Abhorrent!,'' he exclaims. ''This catacombs must have been left undiscovered and undisturbed by the valiant men who have once cleansed the courtyard above. I guess scavengers have stumbled upon it recently, looting the vault, and maybe falling under the influence of Chaos in this very room. Maybe even partaking in some of the rituals depicted here! And surely transforming into the beastmen we have slain!''

''It is time to purge this castle again, and more thouroughly this time!''

In reply to Autarch (msg # 174):

Bill simply gazes into the pool with his other two companions. Not really sure what is compelling him, nevertheless, there he gazes...

Dourdoff looks about the chamber at the strange mosaics along the western most wall, deep in thought, but with also a feeling of impending doom which always seems to be lurking in the back of the dwarf's , sometimes, stubborn brain..

Finn's thoughts are lost within the well; however Nyll, a sensible dwarf, is more concerned with the meaning of the strange mosaics plastered on the east and west walls.

"Dark sacrifices to the nameless Demon Lords of Chaos..." he whispers to himself, though perhaps others might overhear his words.

Louder now, "Those who worship at this altar must surely have been claimed by those same lords, to suffer the fate of being transformed to one of those mongrel, beast-men."

Nyll then attempts to draw Bill, Sidd and Finn's attention away from the pool, "Snap out of it. We need you in the here and now!"

We should burn the robes, Dave suggests.  Even if it's only symbolic, it'll at least make things harder for any cultists that might be hanging about.  They can't do their rituals without the robes, right?

Arnie, meanwhile, is absorbing the details of the mosaic on the east wall.  He appears to be worried by what he sees on the left side of it, and he says Do you suppose all those tentacles belong to one creature?  And that that fellow there is summoning it?  Because if we see a fellow who looks like that, maybe we should just kill him right away.  After a few seconds, an even more frightening thought crosses his mind, and he adds Or ask if he's summoned any tentacle beasts lately, and then kill him if it's safe.

Felix jovially slaps his companion on the back and says Don't worry, big guy.  It's never safe.

At least one of you is reluctant to take the mosaics at face value. Some artistic license must be granted in these matters. The sacrificial maiden, for instance. Not even Lilly, the tea room owner's daughter, just now coming into her fifteenth year, could be said to be as beauteous as the woman upon the altar. Truth is Lilly has too fond a taste for buttered figs and candied olives.

The tentacles, though. Those could be real. Seven, you count. That would leave four of you to slip past unless you can think of something more clever. What might they want? What could pacify them? The priest in the mosaic must know but he's not here to be questioned.

Those that gaze upon the pool blink in astonishment: three human skulls, one for each gazer, have risen to the surface, a faint glow emanating from their eye sockets.

In reply to Autarch (msg # 179):

Dourdoff tightens his grip on his mace and says "Me thinks we should move on out o' this cursed place.. Something in me old bones doesn't feel quite right here.."

"Let's feed the slain beast-men into the pool," Nyll suggests somewhat weakly. There was no telling whether that would sate the tentacled beast's hunger, but perhaps it was worth a try.

Felix raises an eyebrow at this suggestion and says You want to carry one of those rotting fleabags down here, big guy?  Because I sure don't want to touch one more than I have to.  Dave, as close to a voice of reason as this trio has, shushes the halfling and says It might not be a bad idea, actually.  I mean, would a tentacle beast even know if it's getting live meat or not?  Would it care?

Nyll brushes off Felix's question with a dispassionate shrug. The dwarf wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Apparently, halflings were: unless they were stuffing their faces, of course.

Nyll then spins on his heels to face Dave, "Right! You. Me. Let's make this happen!"

Taking a step toward the direction of the nearest slain beast-man. Assuming Dave agrees, and no huge objections are raised, Nyll will suggest the duo two-man drag the beast-man to the pit and unceremoniously drop it into its murky depths.

Nyll will then high-tail it away from the pit and suggest that everyone stand several feet back, weapons at the ready. Especially those with spears.

In reply to Udly (msg # 183):

Dourdoff hears the conversation of what Nyll and Dave are planning to do. With his mace already in hand, the burly dwarf adheres their advice and steps back a few steps..

As Bill is staring into the pool, he sees the skulls with glowing eyes appear and he shakes his head, to clear his foggy mind a bit from this stupor he seems to have been in, and takes a step back..

''Are you mad!''Zar exclaims. ''No sacrifices to the Chaos gods! No virgins, not even budding Lily! No slain foes! No nothing! Is that understood?''

Of course, while Zar holds up the principles of light, Sidd slides down his own dubious path. He locks eyes with one of the skulls, either confident in his own power of will or simply not caring, and reaches out to touch it.

Dave casually responds This isn't a sacrifice, it's just a distraction.  A sacrifice requires chanting and rituals and all that bollocks.

In Dave and Nyll's eagerness to surrender the chaos born to the ritual pool, they neglect one consideration. What if the seven tentacles don't reside, as it were, within this pool? The mosaics wouldn't rightly depict that which is right in front of their own eyes. For that matter, the two Chaos Brothers, the virgin, the ragin' cultists, they're not here either, a fact the two brothers of other mothers are mostly thankful for.

Sidd's skull radiates a noticeable and insistent heat, assuming he touches the parts not still coated with black algae.

Nyll shrugs after being reproached by Zar. "Suit yourself. What next then?"

Sidd looks from the skull to the mosaics and back to the skull. He then decides to put it onto some shaft. In a pinch his shovel might serve, too, since he hasn't got a torch or something similar.

Gingerly he picks up the skull, preferably at the cooler slicky places, and fastens it to the the shovel's stick end.

You're in the ritual chamber with the brackish, skull-filled pool, the ominous mosaics, and the moldy robes.

You can leave the ritual chamber through a northern passageway that leads deeper into the underworld or return the way you came.