Discipline of Black Magic: A Jackal's Pact

[Vardaen]

The Snake gives his order, "Dig!" The two ghuls turn to the tunnel's end and start to dig. The passage is blocked with a wall of broken blocks, filled with rocks and stones and dirt. The two undead creatures attack the wall clawing at it without tools and without feeling pain. They slowly begin to toss the rocks into the water. Time trickles by like so much sewer waste and still The Snake holds control of the Ghuls.


Today...
"There is danger in relying on prophecy, but there is more in fulfilling it."
- Enala The Lord Sun, the Usuper of Shilah, the Treader of the Heavens, the Watchful Eye has risen high and fast this morning. The heat of the Burning Sands is ever hot, but today promises to be more so than normal for those now stuck in the tunnels under the city. Many tales are woven into a single carpet on this day. A tale that was started years ago reaches a new chapter, and this scribe is happy to begin the telling of it.


For one week the ghuls have worked at digging the passage mostly uninterrupted. From time to time a new ghul will appear and The Snake will turn the power of his dark magics on them grabbing control of them or he turns his other ghuls on it attacking and fighting the enemy with the power of his risen dead. He has three ghuls controlled at all times, and Abdal remains under his control still. The amulet itself appears to have developed small stress fractures on it's surface as time passes, and its clear to the Jackal that it will not last forever like this.

Yesterday the tunnel finally broken open and the ghuls busted into a new passage and set of sewer tunnels. Having dropped all their debris into the water, it is mostly gone at this end of the tunnel. Rocks and blocks fill pool and make it a 'dry' area in the sewers for the most part. The tunnel beyond the wall is dry and musty, cob webs clog the corners of the tunnel. The passage opens up into a whole new section of sewer, but a large iron grate caps the tunnel stopping any travel beyond this point for now.

However above you is a thick and heavy wooden ceiling. The sound of camels above just barely can be heard. Those above must have no idea this ancient chamber lies here as no stairs or ladder remains to suggest its used as a basement or cellar anymore.

The Snake has reached his destination, and now the waiting begins...

[ManWithDoor]

OOC

Well, just got all the components yesterday to fix/upgrade my computer. Put them all together, and can't get the motherboard to detect the freaking hard drive! And my old hard drive doesn't work with the new one (which goes to show how old my previous setup was) ... so yeah. Back to borrowing again.

The Snake bides his time as the letter dictated, confident the plans of the Monkey Man have some purpose, even if he does not know the shape of it yet. He has his undead servants clean up the area, preparing for a swift egress once he has whatever goods they came here for. The sewage is kept out of the basement, and the stones from the wall cleared to avoid unsteady footing. If he has to make a break for it, he can always have the ghuls stay behind and kill anyone trying to follow.

[Vardaen]

OOC

Is the new stuff a SATA and are you installing Windows? You may have to hit F6 at the very start of the install to install '3rd Party Drivers' this will let things detect the SATA drive. I know that's how it is for XP, might be the same for Win 7 or Vista but I'm not sure. Hope that might help.

The ghuls work diligently to clear the area and make what is to come easier to handle. The exit is cleared as well, making for a swift get away should The Snake need to make one. A check of the amulet shows that its now covered in surface fractures, the power contained within it won't last forever, and you can only hope whatever is to come happens soon.

[ManWithDoor]

OOC

I think you were on the right track. I gave it over to a local computer repair place, and they said the motherboard kept thinking the hard drive was a SCSI device (which I don't even know what that is). They had to mess around with the BIOS to get it to recognize as a SATA drive. But they got it working, so that's the important bit.

The young necromancer checks on the status of the amulet every hour or so, his worry over its condition rising as time passes. If it should fail before the appointed hour, he will likely be ripped to pieces as all three of the ghuls simultaneously go out of his control. ... and that would be very bad.

But since he at least has them for the moment, he investigates the large iron grate, contemplating whether or not to try to circumvent it at well. If nothing else, it would provide multiple escape passages, and perhaps confuse any persuers as well. To kill the time, he has his servants try to begin removing the grate. If it looks to be making too much of a commotion, or take far too much time, he'll stop. But until then, he might as well keep busy.

[Vardaen]

The Snake is watching the amulet, checking it constantly, and as time passes he can see more and more stress fractures on it. They are tiny, and slow to appear, but he can gauge that by tomorrow morning it will shatter releasing the ghuls under his control, perhaps he might keep control of one of them, but even still it will be a deadly event, and so he hopes things are completed tonight.

He sets the ghuls to a task to keep them busy and to keep time moving forward. They attack the iron grate and try bending the bard but can't. They can however make some head way with the stone around it, that it is bolted to, so they go to breaking away mortar and rock. It is a long process, and The Snake would need a few more days to complete it, but with any luck they will break away one stone, and perhaps open up just enough room for him to squeeze through.

OOC

I'm trying to keep things moving toward you.

[ManWithDoor]

The Snake quickly realizes the futility of trying to completely remove the grating, and concentrates on just removing enough for him to slither through. He's a rather gaunt person, so that should not be as much of a bother than if some big grunt needed to pass by. A benefit of his many privations, it would seem. Once enough space has been created, he carefully goes exploring.

OOC

I recognize we're basically killing time until the rest of the party gets to the necessary plot checkpoints. But still, this is pretty cool. My necromancer gets to feel epic for a bit, before the amulet breaks and he's back down to newbie.

[Vardaen]

OOC

Yeah, sorry about the killing time, but atleast we have some fun RP going on anyhow.

The ghuls turn their attention to the wall and the blocks there, after about two hours the stones are broken and removed far enough to allow the skinny man known as The Snake to slither through to the otherside of the iron grate. The Snake gets the feeling that no one has been on this side of the iron grate in a very very long time.

The passage is ancient with stonework in bad shape after centuries of neglect. The design is also ancient and likely these tunnels were crafted in te first decade of the city's construction. The black unlit tunnel goes forward for about twenty yards and then forks in two directions.

[ManWithDoor]

The unintentional explorer orders his minions to stay and guard, killing anything that isn't him. He dares not go more than a hundred yards away from them, lest his control slip, but for now he takes the chance to see what no other soul has seen in centuries, and explores the near reaches of the sewer system. He starts with the left branch, only going a short distance before doubling back and checking the other. If it looks to contain anything that merits exploration, he'll take the time to bring his ghuls.

[Vardaen]

The Snake explores down the left branch, ordering the ghuls to remain right at the iron grate and keep watch. He doesn't dare go too far lest his control slip on them. He wanders down the narrow stone path above the sewer water that fills the middle of the tunnel for a bit and stops gazing into the darkness. The tunnel appears to just keep going, a few minor side passages (really nothing more than 1 foot pipes) flow water into the area. So he turns around, going further might proove foolish at this hour.

As he's coming back it notices one of the arches holding up the roof is marked with a strange design. Someone has drawn on the arch's peek, in an unknown black substance a small star, surrounded by three dots that might be smaller stars. It appears this drawing is ancient, but not nearly as old as the stonework its been placed on.

[ManWithDoor]

The Necromancer stops to examine this interesting artifact, running through his memory for any correlating information. Perhaps some ancient order, or sign? He hears no extra commotion from the main room, so takes extra time to examine the design and its surroundings. If necessary, he could always have the ghuls hoist him up for a better look. Although that would be a rather unsavory way to go about things.

OOC

Would some sort of Lore help out? I don't recognize the design off hand.