Summary:What is found beneath the ruins of Chernobyls nucleur reactor? A paranormal research station and The Lord of the Feast of course. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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Chernobyl is not the nicest of places. It's utterly deserted and the exclusion zone extends for miles around. The effect is rather eeiry really. It is here though, that Fenris has opened a 'Way' to. Just on the shore of the dam, near the Dniepner River, to the east of the city, just on the boundary of the exclusion zone.
Somewhere around here is a way underground, according to the intelligence that Astryd could find. Once they find that, it's a bit of a walk. One that isn't expected to be easy.
"Sif has something for each of you." The blonde murmurs as she looks around "And we need to find the way in, look around."
She really doesn't want to tarry up here, the sooner they get underground the better. Sort of.
For those that are curious and not recovering from Fenris' method of transport, the 'door' is a concrete slab thing, angled into the bank of dirt near the dam.
*
Ambrose isn't sure precisely what happened to him just now. There was a few steps forwards…and then to the left abruptly…and then in a demented curl as if the path pulled a mirror funhouse (in which he saw variants of himself that made him walk faster - must walk faster, must walk faster, mustwalkfasterMUSTWALKFASTER)…a wash through him that left him struggling for air as if he'd been dumped into the Arctic ocean with no warning…and now he's standing off to one side, clutching at the front of his coat and gasping for a proper breath of air. The Bane's doing a triple-step in every bone of his body and as he looks over at Sif and Astryd, his pupils gone pinpoint are bright as sunlit garnets, he finally fills his lungs properly.
"All I ask…is that someone warn a man before he takes a trip through the ruddy underside of a botched and bollocked world?!" he wheezes. With effort, he straightens up from his hunched lean against a tree and pulls his palm away from it. It's already shedding leaves from the Bane's draw on its life-force. "But fine. Lady Sif, what have you?"
*
Kai takes the travel a bit more easily, and he tells Ambrose, once they've reached their destination, "I'm sure you'll get used to it. It beats going to the airport." He looks around, brow knitting. "This place feels weird," he remarks. "It feels empty, but I know that can't be true." He shivers a little. "Reminds me of Svartalfheim." Maybe not the way the dark realm looks, but the way it feels…
Perhaps it's because she's dealt with Bifrost travel, or perhaps it's because she's Aesir/Vanir. As completely disconcerting as their journey here was, she shakes it off quickly enough and pulls a small leather pouch from her belt. She starts offering each person what looks like a small, smooth river rock about the size of a quarter/pound coin/loony. "These are the best healing stones I could acquire. They will not be able to heal severe injuries, but they should be sufficient to protect each of you from whatever it is in this land that can injure without being seen or fought. Though I recommend we not stay here more than a day."
With the stones distributed and a few extras kept just in case, she adds, "Place them inside your clothing under a garment that will keep the stone in contact with your skin." She tucks a stone of her own down the front of her armor with no hesitation or self-consciousness, like she's done similar many times in the past.
"Are there any wards on this door that we will need to be aware of?"
Fenris kneels down over the door and runs a hand over the surface. "There were at one point but inattention has caused them to fizzle." The fact that there WERE wards over it should be somewhat concerning but then this whole place - and at least for Ambrose the journey here - was somewhat concerning.
"Just to warn you, Ambrose… the Journey back will be like that as well." Fenris winks… and then kicks the door in. It clatters down a set of stairs and thumps at the bottom of a oncrete tunnel. Only then does the Old Wolf take the stone and place it in his poket.
"The Russians were investigating something here, a long time ago. It may have left but if it has not, it will be quite hungry, and quite dangerous. Hopefully it's still contained in the wing of this facility dedicated to it's research. The tablet we're looking for SHOULD be in the archives. But it will also likely be behind some clever locks… and possibly some booby traps."
And that's where Kai and possibly Ambrose come in.
"Well, shall we?"
"You get used to it." Astryd offers Ambrose a smile that doesn't touch her eyes, the cold grey of them scanning the area. She takes a moment to remove the pin from her hair as the others look around and shakes it - the pin extends to an arming sword and the basket to a round Norse shield.
They aren't going in unprepared, it seems.
"Quickly now, the sooner we're underground, the less likely you'll feel the effects of the radiation." The door makes a racket as Fenris 'opens' it, the blonde giving the God-Wolf a 'look'. As they pass through the lintel, it's hard not to notice the runes and script that's inscribed there. Oh yes, there were certainly wards at one time.
The stairs go down and down, into the concrete tunnel - there's not light down here and what they get from the door soon fades. Astryd pulls a glow stick from the belt that she wears and shakes it. She'll take point as they make their way through, unlike some - she can't see in the dark.
The walls of the tunnel are dank, with that horrible damp smell that comes from being sealed up. In some places, the walls are crumbling a little and above them, at intervals the roots of trees and plants stick through.
It's probably half a mile in that they hear it. The scrape scrapeing sound like metal on cement. Well, Astryd doesn't she's roamed a little way ahead to check the way. The sound seems to be coming from above and behind them.
*
"Just bloody fucking wonderful," the master-thief hisses to himself as to their return trip being no less shocking. "I'll avoid Svartalfheim as the plague then." Kai is given a firm nod. Decision made. Ambrose is careful to take a healing stone from Sif with not a single brush of skin to skin and the stone goes away into…his pants, yes. Inside his pants. Sif had necessitated that it be in contact with his skin, after all, and Ambrose does wear nicely-fitted pants as a habit.
The Jackal falls into place in the middling of the line descending the steps and very carefully keeps his hands entirely to himself. The crackling of the glow stick is a welcome if eerie sight in itself. Ambrose inhales deeply and wrinkles his nose; ugh, time-rot.
He does freeze at the sudden alien sound from above and immediately crouches, his hand going to one of his revolvers. The glow stick's distant light flickers through his pupils in carmine again as he looks up at the ceiling. "…I didn't invite company…?" he whispers, his voice no doubt sounding loud in the ringing, pressured stillness of the underground.
*
"Yeah, it's for the best," Kai tells Ambrose. He takes the healing stone with a nod to Sif and tucks it in his belt. He glances at Ambrose, glances at his pants, glances back at him. Then he just smiles.
He positions himself a bit behind Ambrose, and he can see in perfect darkness as if it were twilight, so he doesn't worry about being too far from the glow stick.
He looks up at the sound, and he brings his fingertips to his pendant, ready to unfurl his knives at a moment's notice. "Maybe it's just something settling," he murmurs, ever hopeful.
Buckler in hand but her sword not yet drawn, Sif is toward the back of their small group in case anything tries to approach them from behind. She trusts Astryd to protect them from anything ahead.
The close quarters and dank smell of the tunnel they're in do not bother her overmuch, but the lack of ready light DOES. She realizes and comments silently inside her own mind how spoiled she'd become with having those on her adventuring groups who either carried light sources or could create them magically.
She reacts almost as strongly as Ambrose at the sounds from above, turning to look behind them. Of course, she's not an elf like Kai, so there's honestly nothing but darkness back there for her. She also pulls a knife from her belt, knowing her sword might be more hindrance than help in this tunnel. "Kai, do you see anything approaching from behind us?" she asks sotto voce, which is still painfully loud compared to the others.
Fenris meanwhile is at the front. He can hear the scraping but they're coming up to an intersection and he needs to have a sniff. Hopefully Sif and the others will have things in hand if anything jumps them.
At the T there isn't really a choice. The left hand passage has collapsed and there's something written in what is hopefully red paint there in cyrillic.
"Turn back." Fenris translates and shakes his head. There's only one way to go and he keeps going.
"Do you remember the Lord of the Feast, Astryd?" He asks softly. "That's what the Russians were trying to study here…"
Eventually up ahead there is a steel door. Double locked and from the looks of it, the wall is lined with explosives. So… yes. Booby trapped. Sole two inch thick glass window is darkened so it's impossible to tell what's on the other side but the faded sign above it says 'Archives' in both Russian and Ukranian.
"Well. Here we are. Can't kick this one in. It'll blow up both sides of the wall, which would be bad for us, and also bad for what we're trying to get on the other end."
Sif remaining with the other two, leaves Fenris and Astryd to scout. The Valkyr has taken up a defensive position at the God-Wolfs shoulder. "How nice of them to remind us which way to go." beat "How can I forget him, my heart? I had to escort a number of souls the last time we ran across him."
She glances back to the others "Be careful. The Lord of the Feast is a demon of slaughter. In a way he makes the Sluagh seem like childs play, really." And that's saying something. "Amazingly good hunter as well as fast and strong. Only summoned by the ancient of rite of bloodletting. Once summoned though, he will continue to kill until there's nothing more to kill … "
That scrapeing sound gets louder as they move. It's getting closer … and now it seems to be coming from above them. The Jackal can sense the life force, now. It's terribly corrupted but it tastes good. Sif can make out the shape as it moves towards them - massive with at least eight legs and glowing, multifaceted, red eyes.
*
Ambrose doesn't look over his shoulder towards Fenris and Astryd, but he does reply at them in a series of words all in one breath as he stares at the approaching set of WAY-TOO-MANY-EYES.
"He sounds like a bloody delight, do let's have him over for high tea and crumpets after we're done fetching the ruddy tablet, why don't we?" He pulls his revolver and thumbs the safety off, raising it at the collection of winkling red eyes. He turns his face towards Kai without looking away. "Elf, they will need your assistance breeching the door, it sounds. Do us a favor and don't cock it up?"
With that, he then lifts his other hand towards the enemy creature, fingers curling as if beseeching it. His pupils dilate to the self-same carmine hue as the arachnid's own eyes. The Bane surges out from him, invisible as blood-magic is to the mundane and palpable only to those immediately nearby to him as pins-and-needles with numbing to follow. He aims to latch on to the spider, with its enticing life-force, and begin to drain it as one might slit a throat.
*
Kai glances at Ambrose's gun, then looks back at the thick glass. "Just as long as you don't make any sudden, loud noises," he quips. Then he unfurls his knives from the pendant. Rather than attacking the spider, he gives the blades a twirl and drives them into the glass. These are magical knives, ridiculously strong, and the Elf is himself pretty robust. He pointedly focuses on the work of cutting through the glass, going for a precise circle. Surely the spider will be taken care of. He just keeps telling himself that.
Just as trouble is erupting behind them, something materializes to Fenris right. A flock of crows that quickly coalesce into a tall, gaunt man with antlers and a huge sword.
"Astryd!" Fenris shouts as he rips a silver chain necklace off his neck that quickly becomes an arming sword. The Old Wolf normally prefers something bigger, but the tunnels here are too cramped for that.
Sparks fly as he deflects an attack perilously close to Kai's ear and then kicks the creature back. This is dangerous. Fenris cannot call upon his full range of strength and agility when in human form. And if he's forced to take on any larger shape, it's gonna get untenably cramped in here really really quickly. Hopefully Sif and Ambrose have that spider on lockdown.
When the giant spider is revealed to them, she can't help but mutter something less than polite in her native language before switching out knife for sword. She'll just have to be extra mindful of those behind her. She swipes her sword up at its too-many eyes just as Kai starts slicing at the door and Ambrose does … something. Something that is even more disconcerting to her than the spider.
She forces herself to ignore whatever Ambrose is doing, and aims for a second swing at the spider, this time trying to lop off at least one of its legs.
Kai's work needs to be exact and he needs to be careful. One wrong move and he'll set off the explosives that line the doorway. The knives cut, making a perfect circle - the elf can feel the fight at his back though.
All it will take is for the Valkyr or the God-Wolf to step back to jostle him.
With the circle cut in the glass, he needs to get through and unlock the door. It's probably big enough for him to squirm through - carefully, very carefully. Of course, Kai can't help but feel the aura of the Lord of the Feast. It will feel familiar… Well, the feeling of being hunted will be familiar at least.
As for Ambrose and Sif, the spider lumbers onwards. Ambrose focussing the Bane on it causes its movements to get sluggish just as Sifs knifes remove two of its eyes. The leg isn't so easy. It's like slicing through stone. The dark haired Asgardian can see the fangs glow red as the Spider reaches for her.
Astryd spins as the flock of crows materialises, sword moving in a arc that would gut a normal man. With Fenris pushing it away, the Valkyr looks at the God-Wolf, drops her sword and shield and transforms herself. Into an overly large raven that dives for the slaughter demons eyes.
That should ease the cramping up.
*
The world narrows in around Ambrose as he increases the dedication to the Bane itself upon the creature nearly the size of a Volkswagon beetle and not nearly as charming. His fingers slowly begin to curl inwards upon themselves, knuckles going white, and an inhuman grimace flashing far too much canine begins to show on his lips. He knows there's another fracas going on behind him, but….damned if he could care.
All the while, he can feel the throbbing of his own heart and the burgeoning high of relief that comes from the ancient blood-magic curse being assuaged. The spider's life-force is like the finest wine with both the dregs and a kiss of antifreeze, sweet and sure to poison. The aim of the gun strays away from both Sif and spider and towards the floor, still live. His intense focus and sensory near-blindness leaves his back horridly exposed.
*
Kai forces himself to focus. One way or another, this will be over soon. Outwardly, his features are grim, his gaze fixed on his task, and his hands skilled. Inside, his heart is beating like a terrified rabbit that has scented the fox. "Almost there," he murmurs under his breath in Elvish. "Just a little more." He exhales sharply when the cut comes full circle. He extracts the knives carefully, returns them to a pendant he hangs from a chain on his neck, and he carefully starts to push the glass circle. He's willing, with all his might, for the Valkyr and her Wolf not to back up into him.
So the legs are difficult. Perhaps…
Sif steps possibly dangerously close to Ambrose, then stabs her sword straight up at the giant spider's abdomen — the larger back portion of its body. If she can pin it in place, then maybe it'll not pose a threat to them all by catching Fenris or Kai with a flailing leg. She's not trying for its eyes anymore as Astryd-raven is doing so and she refuses to risk hitting the Valkyr in this tight space.
Fenris… gets bigger when Astryd vacates the space he needs. As the Lord of the Feast swats at the Raven, trying to bring it's sword up, the Old Wolf goes from man to wolfman in an eyeblink and then comes back at it with his sword. He's about as strong and quick as Sif now. And he dare not push it any further than that right now.
His blade slams into the creature, running it through with thirty inches of steel. It doesn't even seem to notice when Fenris twists and rips his blade out. It does finally manage to get it's blade into position to clear the air around it's face and then tries to drive at Kai again. Fenris shoves it out of the way but they bang into the door itself less than a foot from Kai again.
"This thing… really doesn't like elves." The God-Wolf grunts.
One way or another this will be over soon, Kai's right. Either they'll blow this place up, he'll get eaten by the slaughter demon or he'll get that through window and get the door open. It's the latter, thankfully - even though he can feel the hot breath of the demon as it throws itself at him.
On the other side, it's dark of course but Kai can see the locking mechanism. They're locks - sort of and there's an inscription he can read. "Lunar Bath". What does that mean? There's something akin to small solar panels on the lock - like absorbing light of some kind is necessary.
Ambrose can taste how sweet the life essence of the spider - well, isn't. It's strong though and it's incredible corrupt. It's absorbed the fallout above the ground and who knows what else it's absorbed down here. Slowly but surely though, the spider slows even move.
Sifs sword pierces its chintinous underbelly, hot ichor dripping down her sword and arm. It burns. The spider screams, lurching towards Ambrose, it's mawing opening trying to pierce him … He has a clear shot at its face, now.
The Raven screeches as she's knocked back, hard against a wall. There's that horrible thud sound a body makes. It puts her behind the demon, its back to her and her sword on the ground in front of her. She transforms again - it's very close in her now - scoops up the sword and rams it forward. Beneath the creatures shoulder blades if she can.
*
Glutted on the spider's life-force now, sickened with it in a way that makes his gullet crawl up his throat, Ambrose lets out a rusted snarl through his teeth that rakes up his innards as it leaves him. The revolver is raised dead-on with the sudden and horrifying flicker-flash of the arachnid's fangs.
BLAM. The gun's retort resounds around the hallway and surrounding space upon itself multiple times.
Sif will feel, if close enough to the Jackal, how the Bane begins to creep onto her skin, leaving cold and deathly numbness in its wake — her life force will be so much more crisp and clean than the poison lurching through his system now. The Jackal begins to shudder in reaction to the taint absorbed, his aim with his gun wavering.
*
Even swear words in Elvish sound flowy and musical, though with Allspeak, he just sounds like he's speaking everyone's native tongue. The rough translation is: fuck fuck fuckity fuck. No heroic speeches from him. The glass is pushed through, and before it can fall, Kai hastily grabs it and rolls it to the side. Then the Lord of the Feast takes another lunge at him and he squeaks as he slips inside. No eating the elf!
His brow knits as he reads Lunar Bath. Is that an instruction? A warning? He looks up. Is there a hatch that's supposed to show the night sky? Not that it matters, it's just a toss-up if the moonlight is a good or bad thing.
Only one way to find out.
The moonglow is magical. It skirls along the elf's skin, silvery blue like a full moon. The nimbus of pure moonlight brightens, casting him in a fey aura that renders him downright whimsical in a way only elves can be.
It also floods those panels with moonlight. Which may kill them all, or not, Kai'll find out soon.
Fenris sees Astryd transform and throws the Lord of the Feast onto Astryd's sword. She pierces it right between the shoulder blades. It 'poofs' into a dozen ravens that fly up THROUGH the concrete ceiling. It leaves behind a sense of malice. A hunter does not like being denied prey.
Kai should be safe for the moment though. That door should unlock soon.
"Sif, Ambrose are you…" He turns to see Ambrose… looking very hungry. "Ambrose… careful…"
Sif does indeed feel the drain from Ambrose, though with her sword pinning the spider to the ceiling like a bug on a pin, she can't pull away like she wants to. Not until he uses that Midgardian weapon to finally kill the thing. The moment it's dead, though, she pulls her sword clear and steps away from the man as quickly as she can, actually shivering for a second at the truly disturbing chill and numbness.
Of course, the spider's ichor on her arm certainly isn't helping matters.
"Fine," she replies to Fenris. She's nowhere near collapsing for either reason. They're both pains and discomforts that she can ignore until they are safely away from this place. His warning about Ambrose, though, has her looking at him again concernedly.
The spiders head explodes in a shower of ichor that stings when it hits exposed flesh. The carcass, still twitching, drops the floor. They can see it clearly now - it's mutated almost beyond recognition.
Kai is rewarded with a 'click'. The booby trapped door swinging open. The explosives are still primed though, so care should be taken. In addition the room is bathed in a soft light. This is definitely an archive.
There are tables with tablets and scolls laid out. Most under glass or perspex. One of these must be what they've come looking for.
"Fenris, Kai?" The blonde is a mess, her face streaked with … whatever that is that the demon left behind. "Move quickly, search the room. Let's find what we've come for and get out of here."
*
With his gun-hand trembling as if he'd caught chill, Ambrose stares at the carcass of the dead spider. Fenris's words penetrate the weird tunnel vision of battle and he turns to look at the Dread Wolf as well as Sif herself. There's…not much humanity left in the man's pupils, blown wide on the Bane's high and seeking more life-force in base hunger.
Slowly, he looks to the revolver and then up to the others before seeming to receive a hard slap upside the head by the sideways stumble. A palm to his skull and he blinks hard. As if shaking water from himself like a large dog, he shudders full-body once and then seems to smooth himself out in mein.
"Right." A little retching sound is stopped up behind his teeth. It appears he's pulled the Bane in again, for it no longer threatens anyone with the prickle of interest. "Let us get the bloody tablet and leave," he rasps, walking over with an eerie grace and sweated temples to the archival room.
*
Sif keeps watching Ambrose warily as if expecting him to attack, right up until he reacts as if struck by an invisible object and then returns to himself. After another bit of studying him, she nods and follows him into the room, though more to stand guard at the door than to help them search the various tomes in the room for the item they seek.
"I have to agree," she says of the sentiment to find the tablet and leave quickly. "I do not want to deal with another beast of that sort."
Kai lets his glow fill the room so that the others can see. "Careful," he warns. "We could still blow up if we're not careful." The door is unlocked, however, and he moves about the Archive, rifling through things with the quickness of someone well-acquainted with ransacking places he doesn't belong.
The tablet itself isn't difficult to find. It's in a locked case under glass with a sign that says 'ancient tablet' in two languages. Fenris knocks the glass over but lets others take the rather delicate tablet.
"Why do nations investigating the paranormal never conjure anything nice…" He grumbles.
"Right well. I'm sure this will all in no way bite us in the ass later. This should give us the location of the Godkiller. But I don't think we want to stick around here and translate it. I can arrange for us to get out of here sharpish…"
His wolfish grin returns.
"Unless some of you would rather take a plane, that is."
Astryd claps Kai on the shoulder "That was well done, Kai. You kept your head and we didn't have to throw you through the hole in the glass." She turns to watch Ambrose, her grey eyes narrowing slightly.
When he doesn't run from Fenris or challenge him, she gives the man an upnod and lets the other look, as she cleans her sword on her trousers.
As the rogue walks by the debris the Lord of the Feast had left, he'll seen something glint dully on the ground. A pendant. A very old and ancient one.
"Take us home, my heart. I need a shower and I'm sure the others can do with food and drink, I've a pot roast that I started before we came." Because of course Astryd does. "Unless, of course, Ambrose you'd rather try to some more conventional mode of transport?"
*
Of course, the trinket on the ground is shiny and catches Ambrose's eye. He slows in his travel towards the archival room and when he's certain no one's paying too much attention, the Jackal stoops to snatch it up and pocket it. Waste not. Er, ignore not? Regardless, it's a weight he carries now.
Standing in the doorway, he has enough gumption to give Astryd a sickened, thin smile, already dark beneath his lower eyelids. "I don't believe I can get more nauseated than I am now, so, by all means…let us leave how we will."
As he goes to put away his revolver, his curiosity gets the better of him. The weapon is slid away into its holster after being safetied, but…the pendant comes out in his nimble fingers. With glossy eyes, he holds it up to Kai's moonlight and turns it left and right to look it over.
*
Watching out the doorway for the most part, Sif looks at Fenris and Astryd when they both recommend leaving. "I must agree, though I suspect that this," she lifts her arm still coated in the spider's innards, "should not return to any place where there are Midgardians more susceptible to the damage this place can cause. Is there perhaps somewhere along the route back where we can stop to wash?"
Kai tells Astryd with a tremulous smile, "Oh, once I get home, I'm going to lose my shit." For now, though, he's fine. Totally fine. There's a tic at the corner of one eye, but he's fiiiiine. "Ugh, no airports. Can you imagine what US Customs would be like if you had to present an Alfheimian passport? Thank goodness for fake IDs." Which surely he doesn't use, because he's a law-abiding noble elf.
He takes the tablet and puts it safely in a satchel prepared for it, and if he's pocketed an odd trinket here or there, he did tell his roomie he'd bring him back a souvenir from his questing. Wouldn't want to disappoint.
"I'm sure we can find something." Fenris says as he turns around. He makes a clawing motion with his hands and a jagged tear in reality opens up. Just like it's nothing, the Old Wolf steps through.
"Mind the gap, now…"