Gnome Charge!

The nine gnome children are very easy to track out eastwards, right up to the point where you start hitting sand. The dog paw prints lead up to a sandhill and then vanish amidst the winds. There are still patches of firm land, but tracking the lost children and their giant dogs will not be so easy from here.

Iskandar kneels in the sand, one arm held out to the side so he can hold his bow braced against the sand. He holds his other hand over a small depression in the sand. "I think they came this way," he remarks, then stands up again.

Razen has been watching Iskandar since they set out in search of the gnome children, half his attention on the other man and the other on the tracks that have been so clear up until now. The sand makes everything more difficult. "I think you are right. There will be few places for them to go from here though. The desert is not a forgiving place."

This is a lot more like what Elin was expecting when she decided to be an adventurer than some of the other things she's seen. Rescuing children? No problem!

Well, yes problem, that's why she's here, but you get the idea.

Elin crouches near Iskander before she straightens up to her full height. "Probably," she says. "We should go fast. It's awfully hot here!" Not that she minds /too/ much. "I think they went that way." She points east, then crooks her hand at the wrist north.

The antler adorning druid scratches the back of her red head as she looks about the ground at the tracks - or lack of. She chews on the bottom of her lip and tilts her head in thought. Emerald eyes then find her companions whom she has only just met, "So we are looking for a gaggle of gnome children, yes?" Taleth lifts her brow. Two giant born and a half orc? The lithe, pale druid is certainly in different company.

Iskandar nods in agreement. "Well let's hurry," he offers. "It won't do if they split up or run afoul of some monster or bandit and we can't return them to their parents. Men of renown - and women," he nods graciously to Elin, "Never return from a quest empty-handed."

The trek through the desert is rough, the sun is rising high in the sky and the temperatures are getting in the high 110's it feels like. Off in the distance you can hear the screams of children and the barking of dogs.

The moment that the sound of screams can be heard Razen puts on an extra burst of speed. Sound carries across flat distances, but if the children are in peril there is no time for them to waste any longer on waiting.

The druid isn't handling the heat very well. She's lagging behind in some cases and is sometimes leaning on her composite longbow to keep herself upright. When she hears the sound of screaming children and the dogs, she bursts up with some renewed energy and spins in a mystical whirl. She takes the form of an eagle and whooshes up high into the air above so that she can head in that direction and get a better visual of what is happening.

For someone in (admittedly not heavy) armour, Elin seems to be handling the heat just fine; she's a little warm but she's not roasting. She slows down a couple times to help Taleth, if she wants it, though Elin is probably not actually especially helpful in this situation since she's not just going to /carry/ her.

But the yell gets her attention. When Taleth takes off, Elin just speeds up, moving faster toward the sounds. It's a /desert/, it's mostly flat with little sand slopes, it's not like there's a ton of stuff to hide behind, she figures.

Iskandar is sweating and breathing hard, but at the sound of the children and dogs he breaks into a trot. "I hear them too - and it sounds like they're in trouble!"

The party quickly comes upon the scene, a massive sinkhole has appeared in the sand. Six of the children are seen holding onto a rope trying to now be drag below into wherever the sand is falling into. Yipping and barking of all 9 dogs can be heard below. Two of the children are holding the rope back, but are slowly sliding towards the hole. The last child, and youngest, is holding a Sandy Plushie while bawling her eyes out, "I want my mommy!"

Razen doesn't really think about his next action, charging for the rope just beyond where the two little ones are holding it. He feels the rush of movement with him and knows that he is not alone. He grasps it as firmly as he can and wraps the rope once around his forearm so that the weight of his body as will be added to the pull, and to prevent it from slipping from his grasp.

The eagle swoops down to attempt to grab one of the children that seems to be going down the hole the soonest. She however can not pull the child up with her talons and the weight seems to be too much. With the child, Taleth plummets down the hole with a loud screech.

Elin puts on one more burst of speed when she actually sees the danger. It's enough to get her there, though then she actually has to help out.

Unfortunately, Elin has never seen a sinkhole before in her life, because she grew up a) on a shore, where she had to worry more about riptides and then b) in a city, which only has potholes. She skids a bit when she runs, and her reflex is to dig her feet in - except you can't do that on loose sand.

"WHAT," she yells, as she skids right into the hole, plowing up a furrow in the sand behind her!

The two on the rope manage to keep any additional children from falling in. Though Iskander loses his grip and has some slight rope burn. Razen with a mighty tug helps pulls the children a few inches closer to safety. The young crying girl sniffles and looks to the group, 'Save my family!"

The other two though find themselves in a very ancient looking cave. The ceiling is thirty feet up, and dim light comes through the falling sand. The area is clearly a temple of sorts, ancient mosaic carvings on all the walls but hard to tell from where they fell. Though they do not really get a chance to look as 9 very eager and happy giant Corgi's come up and start licking their faces!

Elin does not manage to land on her feet. Elin groans before picking herself up, having landed painfully - but at least not in such a way that she was knocked out from it.

Or that was the goal, because she gets giant corgi'd. "Hey, down, boys!" Though she can't help herself from ruffling the fur on one of their heads as she rises, ascending from being buried in dog like a slowly rising mountain. "HEY, THERE'S MORE DOWN HERE," she calls up, before trying to see who else has landed and what condition they're in.

Taleth managed to break the child's fall. Which hurts. A lot. The eagle is sprawled beneath one of the children with her wings out. She shifts back into her human form and rubs her head. Glancing to Elin, the druid rights her crown of antlers and sighs, "That was unpleasant." She begins to stand up and dusts off her hide, "Where are we?" Whilst mindlessly petting the puppies.

Razen follows in Iskandar's wake, occasionally finding that the other man's strength is pulling him more than he is pulling. The feet of strength brings a grin to his face.

Through the efforts of Razen, and Isakander’s giant efforts they manage to pull four of the five children to safety. Each child reducing the difficulty and pulling out the last child should be easy at this point. Below the sand continues to filter in, slowing down as the ceiling starts to stabilize.

"Beats me," Elin replies to Taleth. Now that she is above corgi level and not in danger of being slobbered to death, she looks around a little more. "ARE YOU GUYS OKAY UP THERE," she calls up, just to be sure. It looks like they're getting pulled out…

Iskandar almost stumbles when the last child is pulled up and the resistance on the rope suddenly vanishes. He pants for air and catches himself, then raises a finger and makes counting motions on the children. "...seven, eight." Iskandar blinks and counts again, this time going by twos. "...eight." He finishes grimly. Next he looks at Razen, then he blinks again, and looks around. "Where are the others?" Finally Iskandar turns towards the sinkhole at the sound of Elin's shouts. "Wait...was that...?"

Razen lets out a little laugh and pulls the rest of the rope to himself. Already he is winding it up, measuring it to see if they can throw it back down for the others. If not, he has more in his pack. "Yes. The women are down there with the dogs and... apparently one of the children." He coughs, gray-green eyes watching the Jotun beside him. "HOY DOWN THERE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

The children are quickly recovering. The largest of the two that were holding the rope lets out a sigh of relief, "Yea! Now we can go rescue our mounts, and get back to treasure hunting. The lost temple should be around here somewhere." pulling out a wrinkled piece of paper and peering at it.

Elin's instinct would be to climb out, but she has a vague idea that sticking a grapple in sand would work about as well as her attempts to brake on it. Plus, you can't get a dog to climb a rope. "If you want to climb out with the kid," she says, "we can get them to lower the rope, and you can get him out! But I don't think that will work with dogs."

Iskandar squints at the map. Then he turns and looks around for a place to secure the ripe. As he casts his gaze about he spies his discarded bow. With a wince, Iskandar moves over and lifts it out of the sand, looking it over for signs of harm. Then he resumes his search, even walking in a circle around the sinkhole, giving it a wide berth but trying to look at it from different directions.

Razen throws the rope down after making a few loops in it. One that should wrap around the child and the other which he offers to Iskandar.

Michael, the eldest, lets out a hollar, "We found it! The lost temple of Thul! Now we can tell the adults. We did our part for the effort against the evil and all" The children who were sobbing are quickly turned around to throwing a small party!

Elin considers this for a moment. "HEY," she calls up. "Lower the rope and hold it! We will send the kid up."

By 'we' she means 'Taleth', because Elin is probably a little... let's say 'not petite' to climb up a rope someone else is holding by raw strength, unless they /really/ want a workout.

The little gnome girl that Taleth save starts to move and wake up, having fainted from the fall. She opens her eyes and peers around, "Momma, Daddy? Michey?" not seeing any of them, and two total strangers she starts to ball. the friendly corgis's suddenly go into pack mode and start to growl low at the two women. Defensively and not hostile for the moment.

With Iskandar's permission Razen carefully wraps the rope around his waist and offers him a length to pull on then re-wraps the rope around his own arm and giving the rope that he had thrown down a few pulls so that it jiggles down there. "SEND 'EM UP!"

Taleth raises her hands defensively at the child and the dogs, "Okay... Okay. Calm down. We were sent here to save you. We are going to get you out of here. Is that alright?" As for the dogs, she hushes them and extenders her hand peacefully. "They are going to pull you out to your friends, okay?"

Iskandar accepts the other end of the rope and then moves back as far from the sinkhole as he can. This time he carefully slings the bow across his back. He digs his feet into the sand again, then recalls what happened earlier. Spending a few moments kicking both feet he practically digs himself a pit and then digs his feet into that, testing to make sure the sand won't shift. "Okay," he breathes. "I think I'm ready."

The child looks at Taleth and calms down visibly and stops crying. The dogs also relax, and then she calls out a few orders and the dogs stop their barking, yapping and fall into line standing perfectly still. "Ok!" She giggles and motions to the first dog, "FireFarts." Another few commands an the dog walks up to Taleth and then sits down perfectly still ready to be tied up. "They're up there," Elin says, pointing up. Which may or may not be helpful, given how many more exits (that the gnome sees) are there?

At least they're cooperating.

Iskandar's efforts to secure his footing prove fruitful. He anchors the rope without moving an inch, and in fact pulls end over end whenever the others pull enough to prevent any slack from building up. Hopefully it makes their job easier. "Well done!" he enthuses. "I think we're getting the hang of this!"

With Iskandar set, Razen gives the other man a firm nod, still grinning in spite of the heat and the predicament that they have found themselves in. He counts out as he feels the weight of the rope pull it. He heaves heavily on the rope. It is far easier work than he was expecting, but still grinding in the manner of which repetitive work is. "Agreed!" He laughs a huff of hot air.

"Of not falling in the sand trap?" Elin asks, because her butt is still decidedly sore from that impact. If she has a bruise tomorrow she will not be happy.

While the others do rope stuff that Elin is not helpful with (on this end of the rope), she looks around a little bit. "Little door," she says to herself, stopping at the north side, before moving around to the south. "Big door." Which is accurate; the south one is bigger and has somewhat cracked holy seals on it, and the north one... doesn't.

Taleth sees the child and the dogs up the hole in the earth above her. She give an affirming nod when it seems like everyone is above ground and safe. Then she turns to Elin when she's noting doors and crooks a brow, "I think we'd be poking the hornet's nest if we go opening doors into an unholy temple.’ She should get the children home. “We can always come back?"

Michael is studying the map, "Huh, large door, holy seals? I wonder if that is what the old man was talking about." Another one of the male gnomes speaks up as he adjust his spectacles, "An astute observations my brother, that must be the great threat we were told about. The one the adults need to be aware of. We have found it, now maybe they will listen and deal with it." Glancing to the adventurers, "Correct?"

Razen considers the gnome-child for a second and holds his hand out for the map. "I will make you a deal. If you swear to go home with /all/ of your siblings and pets with one of my companions, I will go and look at this temple of yours." He looks deadly serious at the young one, far more tense than he had been a moment ago.

Iskandar watches the gnomes carefully, as if they're speaking riddles that he needs to solve. Finally he nods. "Well-spoken, children. You have indeed found the temple, and it will be dealt with. But your parents are worried about you. And it's only going to get hotter and thirstier out in this desert..."

Elin thinks about it for a moment. "I /guess/," is her eventual response to Taleth. Elin did want to go in, but she doesn't want to play escort to a horde of gnomes and corgis when she does it, so Taleth has a point. Plus, they should probably be somewhere safer.

She totally wants to go in though. Elin is absolutely horrible about disguising her emotions.

The eldest daughter crosses her arms and humpfs, "Mommy and Daddy would not let us go, we had to sneak out of course! How else can we go adventuring." sticking out her tongue at Razen. Michael though hands over the map, "Of course, you have given your word as an adventurer!" He whistles and the gnome children all start to mount their corgi's. "Old Man Crazy Bones, gave us that map. said Alexandria was in grave danger if the temple wasn't stopped. Or was it that Alexandria was at risk of losing all its candy, he is a bit crazy you know!"

Elin waves Taleth after her as she moves back toward the big south door. Not being on the surface, she leaves the gnomes to their own devices. "There," she says, helpfully. "Seals."

There are indeed seals there: holy seals, of good deities, that show signs of being cracked. "Don't ask me what they're for past 'fancy locks'."

Razen nods solemnly, folding the map and tucking it into his belt. He doesn't look the least bit concerned that the information comes from some 'crazy' old man. He turns his attention then to those still down in the hole. "Hail down there! Are you coming up or staying down?"

"Good seals on an evil temple. If I were the betting sort, I'd say somebody was trying to keep something in." Motioning to the diagrams, "A lot of Infernal. I can't read it." Taleth then hears Razen call down, "Can the children get home safely alone?! We could see them there and return another time?" Lifting her shoulders, "Any of you read Infernal?" Elin can't read Infernal either but she can squint at the patterns. Not the religious bits (she can recognize holy symbols but that's about as far as it goes) but as how they're arranged...

"Could be," she says. "Might be sealing, see, here?" She points, keeping her finger about six inches from the door as she circles an arc. "Sealing band. Maybe. Think there's a couple more cracks than you'd want though. I mean, chains with holes aren't helping anybody."

She thinks about that, then corrects herself, "Except through the middle of the link, but that's not quite the same."

Iskandar watches the gnomes until they leave, then ventures closer to the edge of the sinkhole. He tries to peer down. "Perhaps they need our help," he suggests to Razen, clearly itching to join the others below.

The half oruch laughs and then heads over to the edge with Iskandar. He offers the other man his hand. "I'll lower you down. If one of you down there wouldn't mind helping him." He shakes his head and lets out a little laugh. "I guess later I'll be standing on your shoulders to get back out of here."

The gnome children are riding off westwards, chatting among themselves happily. "Another victory for the Yipe brigade! What should our next adventure be?" then they are over a ridge and gone. In the distance for a moment you see a old man with a long grey beard and holding a staff watching you, for a moment and then you blink and he is gone.

Iskandar steps out into empty space, falling to the ground. There's a small spray of sand as both sandaled feet hit the ground, and then a larger one as he flexes his knees and then throws himself into a roll to absorb the last of the impact. He ends up on one knee, then straightens to his feet. He resists the urge to look up, instead walking casually over to others.

Elin makes sure not to block people's jumping routes. Getting slammed into looks like no fun.

"So!" she says. "Now that we have gotten the kids out, let's take a look around. Ha, I would not be an adventurer if I did /not/ look in old ruins..."

Razen is only a few moments behind him, laughing as he comes up from his own and slightly less graceful jump. Now that he is down in the hole he takes a quick look around. "I do not know any Infernal myself. It is not a language that I was brought up around." He pulls out the map and looks at it. "The children had this though. Maybe it has some clues?"

"A map to get here? Or a map of the ruins?" Taleth offers as both men jump down. They didn't need help after all. The red head drifts across the sand towards Razen to peer over his shoulder at the piece of paper. "Yes, well it was a shot in the dark that any of us are native speakers of a demonic tongue. But stranger things have happened." Rattling her quiver as she moves, "The larger door seems quite ominous. Might anyone have a way of detecting what we might be up against?"

"Looking?" Elin says, as if it was the most obvious response in the world. "Past that, no. But the other door is not sealed, if you want to look in there first."

Iskandar moves over to the smaller door as soon as Elin suggests it. He pauses when he reaches it through, first touching it with his fingertips, then laying his entire palm against it to feel for vibrations, and finally leaning close and pressing his ear.

Razen tucks the map back away. It has nothing to offer him, but if they can't find anything here, he has use for it later. After a moment he trails toward the smaller door. "Might as well, it might tell us something about the other one."

Iskandar turns back to the others and shakes his head, then moves to open the door.

"Just... Be careful. Given those pictograms, this place likely has many surprises. And not good ones." Taleth offers softly while knocking back some red braids and feathers away from her pale cheeks, "It would have been handy if we had a holy person with us now. This is outside my comfort zone."

The door opens... very easily. As it cracks open it starts to open on its own, as all the sand on the other side comes crashing in.

"I don't mind surprises if I can hit them," Elin says.

This is followed, shortly, by: "I can't hit that!" as she backs up from the sandvalanche. Then forward again, to try to push the door shut again. This may be slightly futile, but she has to try.

There is no stopping the sand, it comes pouring in. On the flip side, you can see sunlight through it, making a much easier way to get out of the temple.

Razen starts backwards, but seeing his companion rush forward he starts toward her. "If there is light, perhaps there is little enough sand that we are safe."

Elin seems marginally sheepish. "I thought there was more than that." To prove her old words wrong, she kicks the sand. Some of it scatters. "All right, the /other/ door it is."

Iskandar moves back away. He watches Elin trying to force the door shut and then lifts one foot out of the sand and then the other, but both immediately sink again. He readies his bow. "Yes. And whatever's in there, we have to keep it from getting out."

Razen touches her shoulder gently. "I think we should perhaps rethink this. I have a friend who knows much of demons. Perhaps if we bring him back to this place he can tell us what it all means without risking us... doing something we should not."

Her eyes widen, Taleth jumping to the worst case scenario that they're all going to be buried alive but there is an audible exhale when the sunlight breaks through. She gives a tired look to the other and nods at the suggestion of the other door. "I wonder how much time we have until those seals fully break? If the children were warned, perhaps there's a reason to that." Taleth offers softly before approaching the larger door.

"You mean retreat?" Elin scowls. "I don't think so. It's all cracked anyway! What can we do that's worse than that? I say we open it. /She/ has the right idea, at least."

Elin adds, "And kill it. I don't mean just sit around and wave."

Razen bristles a little, frowning at the suggestion. "I just..." He huffs and strides toward the other door. If they were all going to do this... He's going to break the door open if he has to.

The door is twenty feet tall, and carved out or black marble. The symbols on it are all about eating various things, gluttony to be specific. There are white ribbons bound across the door in three sets, the top one which has no cracks, the middle which has a couple, and the bottom that has the most. Each set consist of three ribbons, making a total of nine.

The ribbons appear to be made out of some kind of white wood and have their own arcane and holy markings, each one unique.

As the flail from Razens swing hits one of the white wood ribbons a flash of holy light erupts and the next thing Razen knows he is on the other side of the temple slamming into the pile of sand. Lucky the sand is there and not the closed door!

Razen mutters a curse under his breath and picks himself up off the ground. "A door that fights back." There's a grim look on his face, and fire beginning to burn in his eyes. "Once again!"

Elin winces, even though he hit sand instead of stone door.

"Maybe not," she says, after a few moments. "Let me try. Maybe it is easier to cut than bash!" Elin draws the big, curved sword she prefers, holds it in both hands in an aggressive stance, and then tries to cut up from the bottom.

"Given that display." Taleth swallows, "I really think it might be best that we not prod at this. I really get the feeling it's keeping something in rather than locking something away." Frowning as Razen is picking himself back up. "Does anyone recognize these holy symbols?"

Another flash of light and Elin finds herself landing in the sand as well.

"Bah," Elin grumbles, from her position in the sand. That stung, but she kept ahold of her sword, at least. "What? What symbols? All of them! There's even at least one of Animus. That's one of the ones that's cracked up."

Burning with irritation, the half orc lets out a low-sounding growl that builds until he flings the heavy flail in his hand at the door. Not the individual ribbons but the center of the door itself. "Bloody blast it all!"

There is another flash of light and the irritated half orc will find more sand in unmentionable places as he is thrown back again.

Iskandar moves to one side of the door, for a better view as the others try to break it and are repelled. "Animus? Then this seal must be ancient." Of course, rather than impress him or make him think twice about tampering with it, it seems to only make him more eager to get inside. "Is there a knot? Perhaps we can untie them..."

Whatever Razen says is lost in sand until he pulls himself up and out. "Leave it!" He gathers up his flail. "I will come back with Svarshan and we will /salt/ this place." He looked around the room. "We are lost without such aid; so we must have it."

Taleth nods to the others, "Yes, I believe we need a holy person with us to grant us passage. There is an enigma here that is beyond us I think. The children are safe - so perhaps we should see to that and return when we can."

Elin doesn't like it. She glares at the door. Hard.

"Fine," she says, after losing a staring contest with an inanimate object. "But I am going to get back and figure out that - that /door/!"

"At least we can be sure whatever inside will stay," Iskandar adds. "If WE can't get inside, then surely no one else will be able to." He casts one last look at the ribbons before moving for the smaller door and what appeared to be the way out.

As you are all taking your leave and heading home you will find on your personage somewhere, in a bag, a pouch somewhere, a square copper token with a sharp toothed grin on it. Those who struck the door will find an extra for each time they hit it.

-To Be Continued?-