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Morytania braces itself as a hurricane more powerful than any in recorded history barrels toward the southern shore of the Sanguinesti. The citizens of Meiyerditch seek refuge wherever they can - including a long-forgotten basement deep in Sector 4.
Characters Needed
Two citizens of Sector 4, Eldigan and Jane, were caught off-guard by the sudden and worsening hurricane that was hitting Morytania's southern coast. As the buildings around them began to crumble, they found only one safe haven from the deadly winds - a mysterious basement that seemed to have been sealed for hundreds of years.
After descending through the trapdoor, they found themselves surrounded by an oppressive darkness and absolute silence - not even the scurrying of mice could be heard. Feeling their way around, they found a crevice in a wall that Jane was able to squeeze through with a lot of effort. Traumatized by nearly being stuck, Jane was able to recover and find a torch - as well as a strange rectangular object.
When she crawled back out on the other side of the gaping maw of a crevice, she found that Eldigan was not alone. A vyrewatch by the name of Viktor had joined them in their huddled basement. Using his runes, he was able to light the torch and the party saw that Jane was bleeding from a scratch on her back.
After cauterizing the small wound, they went about searching the basement but found nothing. They sat around the rectangular object - identified as a spirit board by Viktor, and had to decide whether they would use it or not. Quickly deciding against it, they opted to go and throw it back through the crevice.
As they made their way to the hole, they were plagued by a constant buzzing - like a fly in their ear. Just as Jane identified some strange, small white objects beyond the crevice, their torch went out and Eldigan fled. Viktor and Jane found him, but upon relighting the torch with their final set of runes they found him covered in letters carved into his skin: "Would you like to talk?"
Unable to take the stress, Eldigan's heart gave out and he died of fright right before Viktor and Jane's eyes. Horrified, the two could hear the sound of wood scraping across dirt. They cast their gaze back toward the crevice, and could see the spirit board sliding from the darkness into the torchlight. Jane withdrew around a corner with the torch, causing the shadows to jump right into Viktor's face - where the spirit board once again slid out of the darkness. Panicked, he questioned the shadows what they were.
The board slowly began to spell out: S - H - A - R - P, before a long, slender, steel-like claw protruded from the shadows and pierced Viktor's chest - and his plate armor - like wet tissue paper. Seven motes of malevolent red light appeared in the darkness, and he could barely make out the ragged form of a lanky, tall humanoid standing just beyond the torchlight.
Jane ran back around the corner, and the being recoiled from the light and fled back into the darkness. Bleeding profusely, Viktor succumbed to his urges and pounced on Jane and nearly bled her dry. With both of the survivors feeling weary they began making additional torches and fires to light the basement - and burned the spirit board for good measure. They found that there were letters underneath the paper cover, but could only make out some of them.
Twelve hours rolled by with a creeping sense of unease. They could hear buzzing just beyond their vision, and they grew desperate. Deciding to deal with the storm rather than whatever they were trapped with, they began preparations to rush to the trapdoor and escape the basement.
However, when they rounded the corner into the corridor that led to the exit, they found that every surface had the same message scrawled into it thousands of times over: "Fooled you." They could feel a cold, dark presence behind them and fled as fast as they could toward the exit. A tall, emaciated creature with ragged skin that dangled like ribbons and steel claws two feet long jumped onto the ceiling and began following them as its joints and bones twisted and cracked to skitter like an insect.
As they rounded the corner to the exit, the being suddenly stopped following them. Fearing a pounce, Viktor and Jane dove forward... but no pounce came. Jane scrambled to her feet, but Viktor could not gain his balance. His strength was draining quickly. He reached to pat his back, only to find that his wings were no longer there - sliced off so clean he felt but a tickle. The vyre, growing ever weaker, told Jane to make it to the exit before he became still.
Shaking, Jane clambered up the ladder to the trapdoor. Just as she reached the precipice of freedom, she found that there were letters carved into the trapdoor. Her blood ran cold. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she read them aloud, having been coached by Viktor a few hours prior. Her body trembled and her grip tightened on the ladder. "Look behind you."