The story so far...The hike back to the tunnel exit past the dead Serpent worshippers was gruesome, however the agents were surprised to find the local blacksmith waiting for them by the cavern entrance where the Antiquarian was being tended by agent Helmer.
"I hear you're here to put an end to the trouble in these hills" the man said, agent Stotzfus nodded. "Follow me, I know which cave they use as their lair - my brother who lives near the hillside told me he spied them walking in and out carrying all sorts of strange objects in the dead of night".
Joined by the burly Blacksmith, a welcome strongman in a band of men who were not keen to get in close with an enemy, the Threshold team followed him to the correct cavern - guns raised they entered the tunnel, it soon started sloping downwards and the daylight faded behind them until it disappeared completely behind a sudden turn...
Trouble...
Distant chanting could be heard, the cavern was also apparently filled with numerous cultists and whatever twisted horrors they might have summoned to help them protect their lair. The Threshold agents soon ran into the first guardians and a wild shootout began. The cultists, robed and using archaic weapons were no real match for the Colt 1911 armed agents who moved from cave to cave following the tunnels. The cave was huge, living quarters dotted the area, crates with food and weird objects littered the whole place and someone had hauled furniture up the hill and down these halls to make it a bit more endurable to live in.
The first section of the cave cleared the agents ran across an old
burial ground, probably colonial era tombs judging by the style of the stonecutting. And haunted. Again agent Stotzfus showed his determination and quickly moved in to cleanse the tomb and put the spectre to rest. The Threshold agents soon ran into more cultists, no doubt attracted to the noise from the previous battle. These 
untrained minions proved little trouble for the seasoned and hardened agents - but then a grotesque slimy tentacled pile of meat 
squeezed itself through the tunnels. The Antiquarian went pale as the blood drained from his face, though it could have been all that blood splattered on the floor as well, he had hemaphobia after all. But no, everyone with common sense knew they were in deep trouble then a Formless Thing appeared in front of them blocking their further passage. 
The men unleashed a panicked salvo of pistol fire and shotgun shells, blasting as many stalagmites as they inflicted hits on the slithering beast that moved ever closer. As they all ran out of ammo and started frenetically to reload their weapons their jaws dropped as the blacksmith jumped the monster and started beating his hammer into what would probably be the face of the beast again and again and again. The rage and growling was partially drowned by the squealing noise that the monster made as each blow of the hammer struck true, smashing and causing internal damage to the formless lump of meat until it stopped moving much to the astonished Threshold team. The mess can't be described, the 
Antiquarian fainted and Woodrow puked in a corner. Stotzfus nodded in grim approval at the bloodstained blacksmith which was trying to calm down and breathe normally again.
And so the team went deeper down the cavern halls, a bloated zombie rose from the water and moved towards them but was quickly dispatched by a bullet to the head, however the passage leading to the ritual chamber was hiding even more of the walking dead, their growls and the sound of their dragging feet sent a chill down the blacksmith's spine and the man finally realized the danger and ran in the other direction - letting the agents armed with guns handle the new threat. Agent Woodrow went in, shotgun raised but the gun clicked and he was attacked and injured by one of the zombies, dragging himself to safety he watched as agent Stotzfus put a bullet in one of the zombies, and then the battlecry of the blacksmith as he ran past them all and crushed the skulls of the remaining zombies - he must have mustered up some courage or realized that the team was in danger. In any case the man moved quickly down the tunnel,
Stotzfus closely behind. They ran into a large ritual chamber where a mysterious figure in yellow was standing flanked by two cultists.Not waiting the blacksmith ran up to the altar and started fighting them both, Stotzfus tried to pick a clear shot but was unable to. It didn't matter, the blacksmith hammered his enemies to death and then moved up to the cult leader and after a brief pause smashed the last still breathing enemy in the whole cave.
The cave was cleared, the threat was destroyed, and once the Antiquarian came around a lot of valuable items were discovered - Arkham museum would probably fill another exhibition room with mysterious statues and carvings.
The agents thanked the burly blacksmith for his help before they parted ways and began their journey back to Arkham, bruised, cut, shot, some with pukebreath, but they were all alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment