OOC note: This Progression was written as part of the Storyweb System, linked here. This post pertains to the activities of the Seraph Expedition League. Those interested to partake in this roleplay in future missions should seek out the League to offer assistance in roleplay, to fully partake in future posts. Resolved to take the fight to the warrior, the Seraph Expeditionary League returned to the cave defended by the mysterious sentry once again. Led by Gabriel du Lachance, the party set up their devious scheme. While Tullion Kearny and Aesling Sylfina hid themselves in nearby foliage, Mort Vanderberg strode to the cave entrance to face the warrior alone. Once more, the warrior marched out to meet the interloper, silent as it had been before. Mort made it clear they were not there for a chat and presented his axe and shield in a defensive stance, and the warrior replied by drawing their own blade. What ensued was embarrassing. Mort’s part of the plan went flawlessly, parrying the warrior’s blows well enough and lashing out with his axe to keep the silent opponent at bay, coming out of the initial feud with only a few bumps and a damaged shield as he retreated, drawing the warrior from the cave for the others to strike. However, it seemed the warrior had either caught on to their plan or spotted Tullion, and suddenly gave up on their pursuit of Mort to charge the silven. This forced Tullion to retreat, outmatched by the skilled fighter and spared by Aeslings bees, who had been summoning them unseen. Mort chased after the warrior who was, in turn, fleeing from the bees. All at once, Gabriel du Lachance, Elijah Pelinelion, Lorelei Luxford, Valerie Ravenstad, and Keltie Ledsarge all descended upon the distracted foe. The plan was for Florance Kade, also stationed nearby, to lob Glace and Holy Water on the warrior to see if they had any effect, but as the cluster turned into an all-out melee, she decided against it as there was no way to strike without hitting the collective group. In the heat of the battle, despite being outnumbered, the mysterious opponent proved a better fighter than most of the party. Keltie managed to flank around the cave’s guardian, latching onto and prying their arm up behind there back while the others rushed to assist. With only one arm, the warrior still managed a brutal punch to the side of Gabriel’s head, who joined the fray with no fighting experience whatsoever. After doing so, their strike to free themselves from Keltie was foiled by Mort, who latched onto their blade arm. While trapped in the grapple, Elijah was free to strike the warrior over and over in a savage pummeling with his stave, but was unable to get through the armor they wore. Lorelei joined in next, but was swiftly booted in the ribs by the still-restrained warrior as the struggle continued painstakingly long. After a few more moments of struggle, the trio collapsed into a dogpile of punches and kicks, but the warrior was able to slip free, nearly unharmed if Florance Kade hadn’t taken up her bow. A well-placed arrow punctured through the chestplate, the downed warrior forced to retreat. Valerie attempted to intercept, but her lack of fighting prowess showed as, even when wounded, a quick flourish of their blade sent the Ravenstad back with a lacerated shoulder. Just as it had came, the warrior disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Another arrow blindly fired by the Kade into the darkness audibly struck stone, and clattered harmlessly. After the party collected themselves, relatively unharmed minus some bruises, some cuts, and badly hurt egos, Valerie found a lost dagger. It seemed it had been lost during the grappling, and didn’t belong to anyone in the party so it could be assumed it belonged to the warrior. Its composition was unknown; while it seemed like a normal knife, the metal was abnormally bright and almost seemed to glow. But analysis had to wait, as the party rallied, then advanced into the cave to end the wounded warrior. What they found was a stone gate, with a spherical indentation The warrior was nowhere to be seen, so the group cautiously check the gate, but it was shut tight. Most of the group spread out while Gabriel and Valerie examined the gate for any clues. Nothing was found, but a previous clue that was uncovered from translating the runes was ‘Sight’. Valerie, with no other ideas in mind, produced the eye that had been ripped from the warrior in their previous scrap. She tried to set it in the indentation, the milky corpse eye staring at the two in a macabre attempt to no avail. Gabriel, exacerbated, tossed out the idea of having the eye face the indentation. She humored him, and turned the eye about. Much to their surprise, a loud crack shot throughout the cave like a lock slammed open. The party stared at the gate, dumbfounded it had actually worked, and cautiously pushed open the gate. Inside was a lone corpse, long since decayed and reduced to barely recognizable bones. The room itself could have been a prison, or a workspace, or a large crypt. Cradled in the clutches of fragile fingers lay a book. The party spread out to search for anything else salvageable, but the book alone survived the tests of time. Opening the book revealed nothing, unfortunately, but dust and a language none could understand, and nothing like any they had ever seen. What was clear was a map, incredibly detailed with a grid system and lengthy documentation, but none they could immediately decypher. It seemed to picture a crypt, however, and its location, so the trail was not lost yet. With a few new wounds, a brand new story, a curious knife, and their new clue, the party set back to Regalia to decide their next course of action.
