Realistic or Modern Mission 3

[Fable]

(Noble is currently busy with exams for what she predicts as perhaps around two weeks, so be cautious about directly interacting with her from this point.)

Tristan's Team

Xemanorth Thatguynameded Noble Scion Tarmagon June Verles r e i

"Less yapping and terrible masculine posturing and more smashing!" Tristan yelled at Kirill as he stabbed yet another one of the damned things nomming painfully on his legs. Honestly, this was not the way he wanted to go out; death by these gross skull spider things. And after seeing one latch onto Jasper's face he definitely did not want to end up having his skull detached and used as a mobile home for the awful things either.

Thankfully Kirill was being helpful and assisted Jasper by pulling off the one trying to use his skull as a new home. The duo managed to successfully rip if from his face, though Jasper was sure to now have a terrible headache, a few wounds to his scalp from the legs digging in, and a horrible taste in his mouth he wouldn't ever forget. Kirill however is the next unlucky target of a face hug as the moment he finished his words one jumps and latches onto his face firmly and like with Jasper was intent on re-homing into his skull.

As Celena takes note of the target Jasper has identified launching itself towards Sang, the sword she threw hit its mark and thankfully missed Sang herself. The sword flies through the air and then strikes the stone wall before it clattered to the floor noisily with a dying screech which set off the remaining ones into a frenzy. One immediately jumped and latched onto Celena's face, holding itself tightly against her face as it went to invade her mouth. ( Thatguynameded Celena beat you to the punch, or well, stab.)

This frenzy mode made them all the more aggressive to the team with Tristan being knocked down by a wave of them and having to choose to protect his face or his body. He opted to protect his face as they swarmed over him. "Someone find that skull!" He shouted out in grunted pain as he stabbed and slashed frantically.

Though Brass had meant to help Sang, Celena had beat him to it, though he did save Sang from another that had moved to jump at her. The one he held squirmed angrily as it struggled in his grasp and cried out as it felt the skull suffer some small cracks.

Elora's Team

Myriad Hanarei Morzone DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon Epiphany

The creature's golden glowing eyes turned towards Don as he extended his hand and offered it a precious memory of his own. It stared at him silently for a long moment as it skimmed through his memories. It glanced back at the nervous Xaira for a moment and then back to Don as if debating which offer it wanted to take. As much as the female dragonkin had been so naive to accept her offer without negotiating or terms, and as much as someone with lovestruck memories were delicious...

Pining memories of puppy love could at times cause one a stomach ache so compared to Don's memories of love, awe, and wonderment, Xaira's memories looked less appetizing. "Very well, the deal is struck. I desire your first precious memory of awe and wonderment of the land above the water. In exchange I will tell you the secret of my tunnel so that you may leave it."

And of course Caddigan had to open his mouth and mention a game. Elora quickly went over to him and slapped a hand over his sarcastic troublemaker of a mouth and gave him a glare that promised a painful end if he kept at this. "You. Need. To. Shut. Up." She sharply hissed out each word to him, and to add on the emphasis of her being sick of his smart ass self she let him see her eyes go entirely pitch black and dark veins appear and pulse under her lower eyelid.

Qerres then additionally seemed to through her own lot into the creature's choices being offered for it to consume. But it had already decided upon taking Don's. As much as it perhaps could have persisted to take multiple members to equal Xaira's, this grouping of individuals had very little tasty things to eat between them in comparison. It also severely doubted they would be willing to each give a memory.

"Do you consent to the agreement, one of the deep waters?" the creature asked Don. With Don's approval the creature would pluck the memory from his mind. He'd never be able to regain that memory for it wasn't suppressed, but taken and consumed by the memory eater. Don would have a feeling of loss should he try to recall the memory, a gap between events. Even as he would later recall this moment and try to think back upon what he had given, it with bring forth no knowledge other than it had been given in exchange.

"Now then, you silly things. Simply turn around and place your hand against the wall and you'll find your way from my domain," the creature laughed. Elora released Caddigan, but gave him a warning look to zip his mouth shut before she went to place her hand on the wall... only for it to touch nothing. There was another path on the other side of the opening in the wall which had been cleverly hidden by an optical illusion that the stone made seem solid.

"We're continuing, be alert," Elora ordered, taking the lead again as she looked left then right. "You want to go left," the creature answered the unasked question. Elora knew better than to trust the thing, but it had struck a deal and it was required to adhere to it or it would lose what it had gained. So, left Elora went and down the enclosed path which after a ten minute walk opened up into a large space and they were greeted by a looming wall of stairs they would have to ascend.

 

[Morzone]

Theo Myrsky
Fable Myriad DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon
​

As the monster turned its attention to Don, Theo lowered his wall of Sparks protecting Xaira. He certainly wasn't the best versed in dealing with magical creatures, but he had a feeling that the monster wasn't about to change its mind again. The fact that Don was going to lose a precious memory gave him a small twang of guilt, but he pushed it from his mind as best he could. Losing things important to you came with the job, and it had been Don's choice to offer.

What did annoy Theo though was that all this mess with the monster and memories could simply have been avoided if one of them had thought to actually physically look for another way out. If one of them had just tried running their hand over the wall... he grumbled to himself quietly as they passed through the illusion. He needed to change his mindset on his puzzle maze. This was no Yellow brick road where you follow clear instructions with problem to keep moving forward. If the answers were going to be hidden just under their noses then that's where he'd look first.

Just Looking up at the large wall of stairs they were about to climb made Theo's feet ache. But he also noticed how precarious climbing them would be. "Those stairs are just asking for us to be pushed off by some trap or some monster, and I for one do not fancy that fall." He said, staring up into the dark distance above them. Raising his hand over his head Theo fired off three flares, flying upward along the wall as high as he thought the stairs would go, illuminating the walls and anything on the stairs in a bright spotlight.

 

[Myriad]

Unblinking and sincere, Don finds himself surprised that the Creature even accepted his counter-offer. The emotion of love... rare enough, but giving that up for his own memories of seeing the surface for the first time? He hadn't... really expected the two desired memories to even compare. But, even so... there's no hesitation in his action of protective sacrifice. "I consent to the agreement, one of the devoured memories." He keeps his arm extended, body still, and takes a hold of the Creature's forearm tightly as it steals away the precious memory. At first, nothing. Then... the sweet, sweet memory is leeched from his mind. He can feel it go, every agonising moment of the memory being stolen from him. No, even worse; being devoured before his very eyes, he can feel it, mind and body and soul. Not even a remnant of it remained in his mind, with absolutely no ability of his own able to recall it, even though he knows it happened.

The moment passes, the moment that felt like an eternity, and he stares at the Creature. Emotions swirl in the Oceanus, the ocean man of the deep, and it takes him no small degree of effort to pull himself to stand. Indeed, he barely manages it as the Creature laughs at them, his shoulders holding strong and tense, but his head held low for a moment. He... doesn't have the words for it. Before it happened, he would've considered it an inconceivable notion, but now... he doesn't have the words because no words exist to adequately describe how he feels or how it felt. Idly, in the back of his mind, fresh memories appear; the past few seconds while he stared at the Creature, bargained with it... Caddigan, Qerres... he feels a faint flare of anger at Caddigan, making light of the situation, of Xaira's costly mistake, and towards the demon woman... traces of gratefulness. Even so, he turns his back on the Creature without a word, a haunted expression in his eyes, troubling him, but with him pushing through it.

Deepscale stops in front of Xaira, head turning to look at her in the eyes. His voice is... heavy, but strong. "If you had struck the bargain, it would not have simply taken a single sweet and intimate memory. It would have hand-picked the very best you had... which I assume to be a declaration of love between the pair of you. Your love for him, the human, would be gone forever from you had you accepted." He states bluntly, directly, with a hand rising up... to flick her nose firmly.

"Next time... give it more thought and talk to your team. Find another way."

He walks past Xaira, glancing to Qerres to offer her a noticeable nod of... thanks, perhaps? As he then follows Elora down the path, the voice and touch and laughter of the Creature following him. Even should someone attempt to talk with him, he would be almost mute for the ten minute walk, barely looking at anyone, looking distinctly uncomfortable and heavy in his stride. He takes one look at the stairs as they come up to them, and without a word, moves to inspect them closely; likely for traps or traces of more magical trickery.

 

[r e i]

Xemanorth Thatguynameded Noble Scion Tarmagon June Verles Fable

Calliea was going to kill Kirill after this was over. When he crashed into the wall, bringing all these stupid fucking things to him. She instantly brought out her staff. Hitting these things like a baseball across the room. "I swear to anything if I get out of this alive, I will be coming after you next." She glances at him after hitting another thing across the room. She glanced around, seeing a spider thing going after the centaur.

"These damn things are getting on my nerves." She says dodging one and ignoring the ones crawling and scratching at her. She runs to the centaur and tugged the spider thing off of her face. Calliea gives her her staff taking out her bow and arrow. "Use this to fight until we can get your sword back. We need to block Jasper so he can finish the spell. And find that little spider thingy, the silver one!"

She then began to fire off her arrows, ignoring the scratching at her legs. Calliea was aiming at another when a spider came at her. "Shit" She said. She really needs to think about a career change.

 

[Xemanorth]

Kirill would no doubt offer Calliea a witty retort, unfortunately on account of the latter's ill timing, or rather, the ill-timing of the facehugging skull-spider, he proved unable. Instead the half-demon focused his efforts on keeping his mouth shut for once, closing his lips as tightly as he was able as he reached up, two sets of thick fingers trying to force their way in between the facehugger's body and his face before proceeding to try and pry it off.

Should the facehugger manage to make gain ground in its efforts despite Kirill's attempts to stop it, any one or any thing trying to invade his mouth was in for a rude surprise. Reckless and aggressive to a fault, any such efforts would be met by a set of tooty, tusked jaws biting down on any intruders. After all, in the words of Jasper spoken mere moments earlier: no means no.

The half-demon's focus on the facehugger, of course, bought the rest of the spiders ample time to crawl up along the rest of his physique. Thankfully, Kirill's equipment provided for some protection against their attacks, but not enough and while any stings that he did receive were relatively shallow, and far from fatal in terms of the damage they did, the bite of the little bastards still stung like an absolute bitch!

( Fable , June Verles , r e i , Noble Scion , Tarmagon , Thatguynameded )

 

[June Verles]

Celena would curse all the gods, of course except for Artemis, for putting her in this situation. Unfortunately it seemed like the gods wouldn't take any of her horse shit as they immediately shut her up with a Crab to the face. As she tried to scream through the crab, which only resulted with muffled cries at best she was trying to think how she ended up situation. After all she did what she was meant to do and killed the golden crab why did it all of the sudden did all the little skull crabs get rabid? It couldn't be her fault!

Still she'd finally be able to breathe when Calliea, someone from the original group managed to remove the little critter. When she finally saw someone she actually knew she could almost cry but she would unfortunately have to do that later, first it was escaping here with her life and then trampling all over the easily excitable demon male.

The centaur would grab her woodland elf by her coat and then lift her up and place her on her back. She'd then look at the staff she was just handed, it could split in half right? If it couldn't she'd just snap it in half and then use it as impromptu swords, she'd just have to apologize later to Calliea.

( Fable , Xemanorth , r e i , Noble Scion , Tarmagon , Thatguynameded )

 

[DapperCat]

location: The Labyrinth

addresses/mentions: Thatguynameded

music: x

Qerres' eyes followed Don a short moment when the creature had taken her pick. Her pistol remained on it throughout- she wasn't the trusting kind. And that wasn't going to start with this... thing. Once it all started to unfold, Q did nothing. She watched. She didn't really have reason to do anything. She didn't know these people, heck, even if she did... care wasn't allowed.

"...It would have hand-picked the very best you had... which I assume to be a declaration of love between the pair of you. Your love for him, the human, would be gone forever from you had you accepted."

From the corner of her vision she saw the man flick Xaira's nose, but she meanwhile sank deep into thought. The words weren't meant for her, but it felt like they were. But to her it may have been a relief. Or more torment- now she'd never know. A slight crease to her brows, she didn't notice the nod Don sent her way, instead lowering the pistol once the creature had slinked back from whence it came.

The woman stowed the pistol in its holster, silently following Elora down the given path. Her eyes scanned the endless upwards steps. ...Great, heights. Her favorite! This was just one of those days, wasn't it.

"Those stairs are just asking for us to be pushed off by some trap or some monster, and I for one do not fancy that fall," one of the newer ones spoke. Qerres' eyes turned lidded, giving him a look of 'are you bloody kidding me'. Of course, poor Theo wouldn't know why. But perhaps he could guess. She idly cracked her neck, one set of fingers massaging a broad shoulder as she spoke up.
"Got any other suggestions? Maybe there's a hidden elevator or somethin'. Like tha' one movie? This... Chocolate movie. It had this glass elevator and th' guy kept bumpin' into it! Only funny scene really."

She chortled, going off in her attempt to lighten the mood as she awaited further instructions from Elora.

 

[Hanarei]

Felicia was rather amazed that it seemed to work out to their benefit over-all. She hadn't expected the creature would be so willing to sway to a different person so easily. She wasn't about to argue at all against it though. Her eyes turned to Don notice he seemed to not falter at least. She wandered forward as the path was now revealed stepping through the illusion of a wall seeing Don approach Xaira as to scold her. It wasn't at all unexpected someone would do so. Even though she thought of the value in making such a comment she didn't see it really in her place to do so, both not being much her own style and not wanting to alienate herself too much. Her early attempt at a joke had rather mixed reception already.

After a rather decently long walk they finally came upon another large open room this time with stairs. Her eyes scanned over them looking at the rather long and intimidating staircase. It was far beyond what she would ever want to climb. She already was feeling a little worn down for walking as long as they had been. She wasn't use to actually using her legs all that much. Most of her time was often spent sitting around and she would often elect to levitate herself if she ended up wandering further distances. Her eyes darted back glancing at everyone else. She suspected they probably weren't as worn down walking as she was.

"Perhaps the trap here is to wear yourself down walking up the stairs you trip and tumble all the way back down to your death." She spoke with her more flat tone of voice in what was meant to be another joke though it was very possible someone might take it to be meant to be something serious. It was likely there might be some sort of trap with the staircase though given the long stretches of time spent walking so far in this labyrinth it was hard to say. She glanced at Elora before shifting her gaze back to the other curously to see their reaction.... both in part to the staircase and to some extent her rather flat joke.

Location: Past the Memory Eater further into the labyrinth
Mentioned:
Fable Myriad DergTheDergon

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper spat after he finished yelling at Kirill, trying desperately to clear the foul taste out of his mouth. In the moments it took him to try and clear his mouth, one of the damned things managed to fasten itself onto Kirill's face. Jasper brought one of his batons down across the things back, cracking the carapace. Several more blows managed to dissuade a few of the creatures climbing the demon like demented monkeys, and Jasper turned his attention back to the group at large. He was just in time to see a sword clatter against one of the stone walls, a skull-spider impaled on its length, keening a death wail. The keening scream seemed to send the other skull-spiders into a frenzy, and Jasper swore as they redoubled their efforts to attach themselves to team members.

After a split second's thought, Jasper thrust his batons into his armor and pulled his staff from his back. A thought sent silver fire flaring along the edge of the gleaming blade, and Jasper began to slice any of the skull-spiders within his reach. Where the batons had only cracked the carapaces, the enchanted edge sliced cleanly through them, neatly bisecting any creature Jasper managed to strike. He began to wade towards where he had seen the sword strike the wall, taking extreme care to avoid striking anyone with the blade. Tristan went down under a flood of the things, and they were way too tight to his body for Jasper to risk striking at them with the blade. Reversing the staff in his hands, Jasper began to bat the creatures off of the team leader, trying his best to clear as many of the things off the prone team leader as he could.

"Find that impaled spider thing!" Jasper yelled as he continued to strike at the things swarming Tristan. "We've got to figure out how it's the key to this mess!"

Fable June Verles Xemanorth r e i Noble Scion Thatguynameded

 

[baddervibes]

Location: This Shitty Staircase| Interactions: Fable DergTheDergon Myriad DapperCat Morzone Hanarei ​

Caddigan stiffens under Elora's grasp, though keeps his eyes on the creature as she makes Don a bargain. Ideally, he had hoped to not have anyone lose their memories (precious or not), but if this was the best path then so be it. Maybe it was better to keep his mouth shut in the long run; not like anyone was laughing anyway. No point in being a little light in the dark if no one can see it. No point in being a little light if it was going to set everyone on fire either.

His body relaxes as Elora lets him loose; giving his neck a quick 'crack' before silently trailing behind the others. Caddy wasn't too fond of the idea of following the creature's directions but, really, what other choices did they have? He stops with the others at the bottom of the stairs and peers into the unknown above them. Well, at least Caddy will get his cardio in for the day.

Caddy was about to offer to scout ahead, but was abruptly cut off by Felicia's 'joke'. It was welcome in a moment of tense silence and the dhampir let out a single snort of approval before biting his tongue.
"I can, uh, take up the front to see if I can sense anything fishy." Caddy offers to Elora, taking a deep breath in order to push the laughter back down into his gut.
"Or I can just keep rear like I have been, or you can put me in the middle, or I can stay 10 yards behind where I can get lost or eaten by a minotaur or something; wherever you'll have me."

 

[Thatguynameded]

With a little more pressure Brass had almost crushed the skull until he noticed that it was the wrong skull. It wasn't glowing but he did notice the skull was breaking under his pressure and was making this high pitch screeching noise. It was almost unbearable to hear and it was the wrong spider so he flings the skull at the closest wall. He quickly changes his attention to the frenzy swarm of spiders instead of caring for the spider that he tossed. He returned to taking wide swipes at the skulls to keep them from flooding in. He swiped until he noticed the next crowed that was about to be swiped away had a skull that was damaged and glowing.

He quickly snatched the glowing spider by the top from the crowed of skulls and turned to jasper and yelled "Jasper! Glow skull". The frenzied spiders began to crawl on him quickly as he tosses the glowing spider at Jasper. Brass pulls them off one by one but they start to attach themselves to his leg as he pulls them off leaving deeper cuts than what the first wave of spiders did.

Fable Tarmagon June Verles Xemanorth r e i Noble Scion

 

[Fable]

(Apologies for the delay IRL things had to be taken care of.)

Tristan's Team

Xemanorth Thatguynameded Noble Scion Tarmagon June Verles r e i

If the current frenzy didn't result in the agents death, it would come from them soon simply being overwhelmed as more just kept coming into the chamber. With no exit it was perhaps only a matter of time before the entire room became a nest full of the foul things and a select few wearing a trophy from the skulls the agents had provided them with. No agent was left unharmed at this point. While they had been thus far lucky with what could be passed off as minor wounds, it was going to become more difficult to avoid a broken bone and should that happen and an agent fall into the pain of the injury it would be easy for the critters to overwhelm them and kill them in the mere seconds of their reaction.

The one of Kirill's face tightened and tightened and while he tried to keep his mouth shut, these things had tools to pry it open. First it pressed itself so tightly against his face that he would struggle to breath through his nose and would eventually have to gasp for air. The moment that happened to smaller hidden arms would dart out too quickly to avoid and pull his mouth open wider and then it would move to cram itself inside his skull, eating the contents of Kirill's brain to make room for itself.

The one on Celena's face was pried off before it could do the same to her as she had screamed and it would have taken advantage of that moment and killed her. The frenzy still continued though and they just kept jumping at her and on her. They obviously weren't really intelligent creatures seeing as some had grabbed and were biting her horse tail hair. They were going for anything and everything that just wasn't them. One even jumped and latched onto the Staff, biting it and the wood began to crack from the pressure.

At this point Jasper had gone to assist Kirill as he had done for him and removed the creature from his face. Additionally he also helped Tristan who at this point thought he was going to die a horrible death. When Jasper cleared enough for him to regain the upper hand - though he was severely scratched and bitten by this point - he got back up on his feet and resumed in the slaughtering of the things. He overheard Jasper shouts over the death cry and nodded before sliding his feet in an awkward shuffle through the swarm towards the sword. He wanted to reserve his mana, but he had a plan. He just had to get to the sword....

And then Brass beat him to their target, grabbing the injured glowing skullspider and throwing it to Jasper. Tristan turns to Jasper and shouts over the chaotic noise, "I am going to stun as many of them as I can, I probably won't get them all, but it should be enough to give you a path back to the door and figure out what the fuck we're supposed to do with the damn thing before we all die in here."

With that Tristan opened a small pocket on a belt which seemed to have a few kunai within. He took out three and charged them with kinetic energy before throwing them into the ongoing frenzy in a direction towards the door Jasper had been at before. Upon impact there was a small explosive energy which caused there to be pockets of a few dead skullspiders and many more of them currently stunned. "Get your ass going!"

Elora's Team

Myriad Hanarei Morzone DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon

The wall of stairs seemed to go upward into the darkness. However when Theo sent up some flares to illuminate their new obstacle they seemed to go on ever further, multiple flights where one incorrect step or stumble would send a person falling most likely to their deaths. The steps weren't narrow and were wide enough to allow two daring people to walk together on the same step, but that would be a dangerous choice and single file would have been best to avoid any accidents.

Don's inspection of the base of the stairs doesn't give him any interesting information. For all intents and purposes it seemed like ordinary stone stairs, just a ton of them going on and on. There was no magical essence leaking from it and the intricate designs seemed - where he looked - merely decorative.

Elora stood and stared at the stairs, though she did notice Felicia turn her way after her own comments were made about this next problem. Oh, Elora didn't doubt there was something sinister about the stairs. It could very well be trapped, if it wasn't she would have be very surprised. The again them being stressed about the unknown possibilities could simply be what the stairs were for. Caddigan's snort earned him a glare from the woman.

"You'll be at the rear. Should someone fall that direction you get to catch them. Felicia, you won't be taking the stairs. You'll levitate at our pace as we ascend. You'll have a better vantage point and be able to look out and warn us if anything odd begins to happen. Additionally if someone should begin to tumble or fall you can do what you can to prevent that incident."

She approached the stairs cautiously, at first taking a step and experimentally stepping down to see if anything triggered. When nothing happened she took another experimental step. "I'll go first. If I die Theo you're in charge of the group." With that she began to ascend the stairs at a normal pace. If she was going to trigger something hopefully it would only affect her. The chances of it only affecting her were highly unlikely, but she could still hope.

At first everything was normal about the stairs. They had already gone up a few flights without any incidents. That didn't mean Elora relaxed as they kept going. Honestly she worried this was a repeat of the tunnel where it seemed infinite and made sure to slide her hand along the wall to see if there was anything hidden behind an illusion, but there was nothing but stone. It wasn't until her foot fell upon the landing for the fifteenth flight that her a stone she had stepped upon hissed and went a hald-inch into the floor.

"Shit," she swore, awaiting certain death, but nothing happened at first. Then there was the familiar sound of stone grinding against stone from below. She carefully looked over the edge and down and began to see the stairs retract into the wall. "Run for it and pray you don't trigger something," she called out before she bolted up the stairs as quickly as she could that hopefully wouldn't result in her falling. She didn't know how much further they had to go, but they needed to get off the stairs now!

It was exhausting racing up the stairs, but on the thirtieth flight there was a glimmer of hope as there seemed to be an opening in the wall. While the stairs did continue upward she would prefer to take the door than risk the stairs sliding out from under their very feet. "There is an opening, we're going in and be ready to fight because I have no idea what's in there!"

The stairs under their very feet began to shift and slide into the wall, they had no choice but to go there now or fall to their deaths because they didn't know when the next opportunity for safety would present itself. By the time Elora managed to reach the safety of the unmoving floor there was only two feet of stone stairs left protruding from the wall. She couldn't watch them join them in the opening as she turned her focus to see if there was any new danger awaiting them here. What she was greeted with was an unlit stony hallway, but at the end in the distance there seemed to be some sort of glow and there was an air current.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper fielded the skull-spider Brass tossed in his direction, cursing vilely as he was nearly impaled along with the skull-spider by the blade still half-way through the beast. Fortunately, his reflexes were up to the task, and he caught the blade by the hilt, holding the blade in one hand with the creature impaled on it like a demented trophy, and his staff in the other hand. The way back to where he had found the odd keyhole was quite thoroughly blocked by a swarming mass of the damned things, which were rising to unholy heights in their attempts to relocate into the various agents, or at least to incapacitate them for the aforementioned relocations. Tristan seemed to have other ideas, throwing several small objects he took out of a pocket on his belt into the swarm. The resulting explosions created small pockets of dead spiders, surrounded by much larger pockets of stunned ones, which Jasper found highly satisfying.

Jasper ran up to the wall blocking their progress, his eyes finding the small keyhole he had seen before, and he leaned his staff against the wall, the blade pointing to the opening, then turned his attention to the impaled spider thing. It was still keening that painfully high death cry, and the legs scrabbled frantically at the blade, but the motions were slowly losing speed and strength. Jasper examined the beast, but he couldn't see anything that looked like it went into the socket/keyhole/whatever the frak that damned hole in the wall was. He examined each leg minutely, gathering a couple of new scratches when he got a little too close the the waving limbs. Nothing. Placing the beast against the wall over the hole accomplished exactly squat, and Jasper swore again. The creatures that Tristan had stunned were starting to recover and resume their assault on the rest of the team.

Jasper began to slide the beast off of the blade, and paused. Something hadn't felt quite right. He started to extract the blade again and felt it again, the distinctive grating sensation of metal scraping on metal. He put his ear next to the beast, ignoring the cuts and scrapes it inflicted as he pulled on the sword for a third time. Over the sounds of combat, the death agony of the thing on the sword, and his own ragged breathing, Jasper heard, very faintly, metal grinding against metal. Ripping the sword the rest of the way free, he thrust his hand into the gaping wound the blade had left. Immediately dozens of small legs and innumerable very small, but very sharp teeth began to savage his hand, but he gritted his teeth and thrust deeper into the body of the thing, twisting his hand around, searching for the source of the grating sound. The sensation of the legs and teeth faded as his hand went deeper, the beast's fading strength unequal to the task of penetrating the armor covering his forearm, though a whole host of new sensations presented themselves as Jasper felt around in the things innards. Where was? There! A hard shape materialized under Jasper's questing hand, and he closed his hand around it, bursting some unknown and unknowable organ deep inside the thing.

In its death throes, the thing's muscles spasmed, locking Jasper's hand deep inside it. Cursing yet again, and damned if his vocabulary wasn't getting one hell of a workout today, Jasper wrenched his hand back and forth, but it was well and truly stuck. After a moments fruitlessly bashing the beast against the wall, his eyes lit on his staff. Moving carefully, Jasper worked the tip of the blade into the things body, keeping the dull side of the blade pressed against his hand. A moments sawing, and the body fell into two pieces, freeing Jasper's hand and the thing he had clutched in it. Opening his hand, Jasper saw an ornate key, oddly shaped, but looking like it would fit the hole he had found in the wall. He pondered the thing for a moment, but the increasingly desperate sounds of combat made the choice for him. He thrust the key into the hole, and a wave of, something blasted out from the keyhole as soon as the key settled into it. Where the wave passed, the skull-spiders just, stopped. They remained attached to the team members, their legs locked into place, but they were no longer active, no longer living.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Jasper said sardonically into the ringing silence. "Now how the hell do you suppose we get out of here?"

A loud grating of stone on stone caused Jasper to turn back to the wall, just in time to see it vanish into the floor, taking the key with it.

"Never-mind."

Fable June Verles Xemanorth r e i Noble Scion Thatguynameded

 

[Morzone]

Theo Myrsky
Fable Myriad DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon Hanarei
​

"I guess it'll just be one elaborate trust fall." Theo offered with a half smile to Felicia's joke. In truth he didn't find the matter funny in the least, especially after his flares had revealed just how high they would have to be going. But laughing at the obstacles in front of them often made them easier to overcome, at least mentally, and if he could lighten the mood by striking up some conversation then all the better. Hopefully he'd get to know his teammates better at the same time. Theo certainly regretted not getting to know the people he was working with, especially after Elora's next comment.

The declaration that he would be in charge of the group if she died caught Theo completely by surprise. Him? Why him? This was his first mission! Surely one of the others... No it didn't matter at this point. If that's what Elora had said then that's what he'd have to do, he wouldn't get a say in the matter. Apart from trying his absolute best to make sure she stayed alive. Oof, what if something did happen to her though? For all the joking there was no way this staircase was going to be a completely safe climb. Would the others even listen to him? Various questions ran through his head in a dull panic as the group began to ascend the long climb ahead of him. Theo had taken up the position second to the front, right behind Elora.

After a few flights he managed to calm down enough to force himself to think things through rationally. If something did happen, he would need to be prepared. Even if he didn't have much, he could use what he had. So what did he have? What did he know or had inferred about his teammates? Felicia had a range of psychic powers, he'd seen that, but she didn't seem like the kind of person to take initiative in this kind of situation. She would most likely offer ideas first before carrying anything out. Don was in a bad way, he'd be dealing with the fallout of that last room for the rest of this mission. Xaira probably would be fairly shaken up as well, but he didn't have a good enough measure on her to know how she'd respond to her mistake. Would she draw back in trying to avoid a repeat, or would she come forward more in an attempt to make up for it? Still, they both had a good range of abilities, probably more than Theo knew about, so he wouldn't be able to let them sit back and take it easy. This was a mission after all, if they didn't all pull their weight everything was going to get much harder. There was Qurres as well, though he didn't know much of anything about her abilities. He didn't doubt she had some, but so far all he knew for certain was hat she was almost constantly drunk and, judging by her reaction to his previous comment, she was very much not fond of heights. Or falling from heights. Probably both. Then there was Caddigan, Theo wasn't sure about him. If anyone was going to ignore Theo and do their own thing, Theo bet it was going to be him. Then again Don might prefer his own judgement over others after Xaira's mistake. Perhaps there was a way-

"Shit."

Elora's sudden swear made Theo freeze, pulling him sharply out of his train of thought. Like the team leader he stood there feeling every millisecond death was about to come one or more of them. Then the loud grating sound of the stairs retracting into the wall met his ears. Shit is right. He thought, bolting up the stairs several steps at a time after the team leader. He wasn't too worried about his own ability to outrun the stairs retracting behind them, running was what he was good at after all, but he wasn't sure on how the other's stamina would hold out in a long run up the stairs. It helped to know Felicia was floating alongside them in case one of the runners did fall. How many of them would she be able to levitate if the stairs fell out below them? Would she be able to get them back safely to the ground? Was the ground even a safe place to go to anymore? He didn't have the answers, all Theo could do was run and hope they found safe ground.

That hope was answered as Elora called out the presence of the of the opening in the wall. Unfortunately the stairs seemed to be listening as they suddenly sped up their effort to remove their footholds. No loner behind them the steps under their very feet wee disappearing. Elora made it in safely, but by then only 2 feet of space was left. There wasn't any more space to run without a serious risk of missing the remainder of the step and tumbling off into the long drop. With the largest stride he could take Theo got himself into the opening after Elora. In that time they'd already lost several inches off the stairs, there was no doubt at least one, if not two of the people behind Theo would have to make a jump for it. Pressing himself against the wall so as not to block the entrance, Theo balanced himself so as to be able to safely lend a hand without being pulled out of the opening himself. Whether it was someone jumping for the opening or being brought down after Felicia grabbed them, Theo would reach out a hand to grab.

 

[Xemanorth]

Kirill was, thankfully, saved from the experience of french kissing one of the facehuggers thanks in no small part to Jasper returning the favor of pulling the thing off of his face before it managed to do its thing. The half-demon was thankful, no doubt, but was not great at expressing such, after lobbing a hefty glob of spit onto the floor, he allowed a short: "Thanks." to part his tusked lips.

Frankly, the attempt at facial copulation had insulted the man, and considering the fact that he was one with a short fuse to begin with, as well as the fact that he was still very much swarmed by the things, this was not going to end well. A tension within him continued to build, winding tighter and tighter with each bite and scratch he felt on his burly frame.

Despite the mounting pain and frustration, Kirill took in a deep breath trying his utmost best to control his temper, knowing fully well that snapping and losing it would not end up well for anyone, least of all his teammates. Deep breaths, count backwards from ten to one. "Ten..." The half-demon began to count in his mind, a sharp, stinging sensation running up and down the length of his leg.

"Nine..." He continued, breathing in sharply as another sting joined the first. "Eight..." And a third immediately followed. "Seven..." The half-demon continued, feeling another set of dull, crushing teeth imprinted themselves on his skin. "Six..." He managed to echo in his mind nevertheless. "Fiv-" Tooth and claw alike sink into his skin, the pain rattling his frame and throwing him off-track, the half-demon repeats to himself: "FIV-" the repetition only seemed to urge the skull spiders into further frenzy, another assault proceeded, tooth and nail digging deeper.

"FFFFFFFF-" The half-demon began, audibly this time, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip as he hissed out the beginning of the number once more, only to be met with the same result. Turns out, he wasn't cut out for this yin yang-feng shui-zen bullshit after all. And so, instead of trying to hold back, Kirill sought to channel his building rage into something destructive before it would push him past the point of no return.

"FUCK YOU!" Kirill finally bellowed, throwing his arms up into air and shaking his burly frame with such reckless fervor that the skull spiders attached to him began to drop like flies, littering the ground around him. That would not be the end of it however, oh no, far from it. The half-demon drew one of his fists back out behind him as he leaned back, bending at the knees to put his frame as low to the ground as possible as he pushed forward, swinging his fist in a wide, low arch near to the ground that caused it to plow through a considerable amount of skull spiders.

The half-demons entire body moved with such swiftness that the sheer mass could be heard audible traveling through the air with a low whiff. The skull spiders caught in the path of his fist were destroyed outright, and those that were not only had the skulls and corpses of their former comrades to thank for acting as a cushion against the immense force of the blow. Not that it helped much as the fist flew in a low arch along the ground before turning into an uppercut, knocking the surviving skull spiders high up in to the air.

One of them the burly brawler caught with his free hand as it was on its way down, squeezing it in the palm with such force that the skull portion of it threatened to be crushed altogether, despite knowing full well the creature did not understand him, he could not help but regard it with a question. "Guess who's going to get their ass kicked?" He asked before pulling his leg back and swinging it forward in a fierce kick, granted it didn't hit the skittering crawler he was holding in his hand, but its falling comrades instead, launching them across the floor into the rest of their horde, acting as bowling balls, with their skull spider allies, of course, playing the part of the pins.

That left the fate of the skull spider he was holding in his hand into question however, what was to happen to it? Thankfully for the spider, Kirill was more than eager to give a definite answer to whatever existencial crisis it may have been going through regarding its exact purpose in life as he drew his other arm back now, winding up a short moment before throwing the spider within his grasp into a group of its allies, causing parts of the weakened skull to shatter and explode in all directions, not unlike a frag grenade, with the chips of bone acting as its fragments.

Thankfully, by the time he was done, the battle seemed over for the most part. Or at the very least the sound of stone scraping against stone signified the opening of a passage and a way out of the room and the immediate vicinity of the spiders by extension. The half-breed's rage and bloodlust expended and sated, at least for the time being.

( Fable , June Verles , r e i , Noble Scion , Tarmagon , Thatguynameded )

 

[Thatguynameded]

Swiping as much as possible brass's arms are beginning to get a little tired from the constant same motions of left right, left right, left right. This game was starting to seem a little unfair and turning stale as an event. It was a good one to the wolfolk but he had better ideas to make this one much more reasonable. Left right. They could have chosen spiders less durable, maybe a little smaller as well, there were enough breeds of spiders that this was possible. Left right. Maybe made the space wider for running, change it into a game of stamina. Brass would have loved if it was stamina, hes trained for stamina the past week or so. Left right. Brass also considered that the group ran into an area with a higher difficulty in games. We did have to chase after the Half Demon into a different zone. Left right.

He herd something rush past him throwing spiders all over the place some dying some still crawling around. Finally something different brass thought, Then he would grab the stragglers from that rush attack and toss them at walls to finish them off or at least break their shells enough to expose them. Looking over he sees its the Half demon again. Brass is starting to think he maybe has a problem with having a pack. Lone wolf is a term in his society after all, but they don't last long, not very long.

As brass began to stand there and think about everything he did not notice the crowed of spiders quickly surrounding him. As one began to crawl on his leg he arched his arm upwards to swing as hard as possible, he felt a force move behind him. The spider fell over before it could attach its self to brass's body. The room was suddenly very quiet and that he could hear was everyone's change in breathing from the situation. Everyone seemed hurt due to the legs of the spiders. Brass remembered what the wise one told him once, "we have bacteria, helps clean cuts, we lick cuts". He wasn't sure what black tears UH were but it if it helps the pack, he will lick everyone's cuts.

One by one with nothing stopping him, starting with Sang, he licks her cuts around her hands, arms, neck and face. He dose this with out warning and says "brass licks, black tears UH good". Then his next target is our silent elf woman and gives the same treatment, licks without warning, then explains. Then he moves onto Celena who has most likely caught on to what is happening already, this time after doing his duty he tells her "more later, fur hard to lick". Then he moves on to Jasper and Tristan, leaving Krill last. Krill is last due to him getting us into a game that hard for us. After licking everyone's cuts he pulls out his bowl from his slightly damaged duffel bag and pours himself water and furiously drink from his bowl.

"You do good Brass, You do good" is what he thought while he drank his water looking at everyone.

Fable Xemanorth r e i Tarmagon Noble Scion June Verles

 

[DapperCat]

location: The Labyrinth

addresses/mentions: Thatguynameded

music: x

Qerres looked around with an annoyed pout as nobody responded to her reference. Nobody saw that movie since mingling with the human-world? Disappointing.

Her mind wasn't able to make self-calming jokes for long as her eyes caught onto the stairs once again. She was told many times that her fear of heights was an issue. She didn't know where it had come from, but it had built up a little over time. Perhaps some of the jobs she had taken on in the past had a part in it as well. Rolling down a steep hill full of demon-landscape rocks was all too common in her job repertoire.

Due to her thoughts and memories, she didn't really tap into what was being said. She only snapped to awareness when Elora started moving. And Q knew she had no choice but to let her feet guide her after the leader. The first flight was manageable, half of it easy, the other half she began to show tense lines along her eyes as she walked silently upward.
You can do this. Act it off. Show nothing.

Logically she wouldn't be able to hide it all, but if a portion was not shown it would make her less of a vulnerable target for her team-mates if push came to shove. As they proceeded up what Qerres felt was the hundredth staircase, she began to sweat. She tried to not look down, but the temptation was getting to be too much and involuntarily she began to walk closer to the wall.
All of her focus was on keeping herself together and not looking down into the chasm beside them. But the echo of a hiss reached her pointed ears.

"Run for it and pray you don't trigger something."

Run for it-? Her eyes widened, her body moving like a wooden puppet as she tried to follow. Her forehead and hands were now coated in sweat, her expression tense and a primal sense of fear behind her eyes. She picked up her speed as she heard the sound of the retreating steps behind her, but she did her utmost best not to look. Run- run- run. It's alright.

But when they began to feel the steps wiggle and rumble below their feet, it was the start of a catastrophe. First, Qerres couldn't help but look down at the steps out of incessant fear. Her eyes automatically caught the endless void beside the steps as she looked. She felt dizzy. A fainting spell was coming, and she tried to adjust her feet to make sure she didn't fall, but it wasn't enough. One of her knees buckled, her body suddenly careening towards the dark void. Her fear immediately battled it as she let out a choked yelp and reached out with her hands, desperately trying to snatch onto the side of the steps as she fell down.

Thank the non-existent Ai'unia she had a set of large metal-like claws that could extend. And this time, they did so out of instinct and survival. Her chest slammed painfully against the stone steps as her large metal claws shrieked, clawing into the stone. Her breath started to race as she held on for dear life, her arms visibly shaking. She'd been called suicidal for many reasons and at many different times, but the one way she never wanted to go was off a large height.

 

[June Verles]

As the pain of scratches and bites washed from all over the Centaur's larger than average body she gritted her teeth, she could somewhat endure it as her fur somewhat mitigated the damage. As she knocked spider after spider off her she would blink surprised when one of them attached to her club. Unfortunately she didn't have time to take it off so she just opted to use the attached spider as a impromtu club, now smashing the other spiders off.

She didn't have much time to look at the rest of the team, but she did manage to hear snippets of tugging and extra loud sounds of one critter's demise, which somewhat uplifted her mood. What uplifted her mood even further was when the spiders just stopped moving altogether, still attached to them and their weapons. She would pinch her to see if she was dreaming, but she already had multiple of the buggers stuck mid bite onto her to realise that this wasn't fantasy but reality. Letting out a sigh of relief she would look at the wood elf who basically saved her life, smilling and offering her staff, before realising it still had the aforementioned crab on it, just somewhat smashed a bit after being used like a club.

Celena would cringe as she pried off the creature of it, revealing some damage done to the wood but it was still usable, probably. She would rub the back of her head and then say while looking down, feeling somewhat at fault for the damage;

"Sorry, I promise I'll get you a new one when we get back. Though first we have to finish here..." She would say while turning around to see that a new passage would be opened. However, they should probably mend their wounds before advancing, something the wolf kin already got on by licking them, which she luckily avoided due to her fur. Nonetheless as she had a chance to have a better look at the wolfkin she swore she saw him, or at least smelled him before? Oh well that'd be for latter.

She'd reach into the many bags that were mounted on her back and pull a industrial sized 50 pack of band aids, which had a big half off on it. Pulling out a box for herself she lob bandages at whoever asked for some or looked like they needed them.

Fable Xemanorth r e i Tarmagon Noble Scion Thatguynameded

 

[r e i]

Xemanorth Thatguynameded Noble Scion Tarmagon June Verles Fable

Why her? Just why her? After the anti-climatic ending of the war against spider monsters. Brass, the wolf folk decided that licking them were the next part of his mission. Well, licking their wounds. Since Calliea had a lot of them, she was covered in wolf slobber. She was so stunned that she didn't try to fight back. Plus after the stinking, her wounds felt better with the wolf spit on it. He did try to explain that his licking was to help heal them. She then turned to Celena and shook her head looking at her cracked staff. "My da could make me another one. You don't have to do anything. Plus I gave it to you, so you won't be killed, and I'm glad it served it purpose. " She then took some bandaids. Placing them on the wounds that the wolf had already licked, just to make sure no bacteria could get on it. She even used some to cover up the crack that was in her staff.

Calliea checked her arrows amount. Well, she wasn't low, but damn well near it. She then turned to the half-demon that got into them in this mess. "How about next time, you don't just run off into DARKNESS JUST BECAUSE OF A NOISE!" Her eyes were darkened, she was angry. "You almost got most of us killed! Think with your head, not with your damn bloodlust next time. " She breathes heavily. Calliea was just pissed off at the half-demon, for not thinking about others and just himself.

 

[Hanarei]

Some relief filled the esper's mind as it seemed her joke had done... better? It was hard to really tell considering she wasn't exactly the most keen on social interaction. Having worked to keep her own emotions in check it made it a bit more difficult to identify more subtle expressions or responses. Theo's answer did at the very least make her feel as if someone had caught on to her attempt at humour even if not a full reaction. Caddigan... truth be told she wasn't certain what to make of it. He did come off a bit... sleezy... though his response didn't sound fake. It didn't seem like he had much reason to fake a response atleast and given her lack of much social interaction it was a bit beyond her talents to attempt to decipher him.

While it didn't show Felicia felt a great sense of relief about being told to use her powers to levitate. She had intended to do so to at least some extent before though she had been planning to do so in a much more subtle manner simply following along the stairs. She didn't hesitate at all as the abnormal red glow formed around her as she floated herself off the ground. It like a huge weight had been taken off her legs feeling a little sore as it was finally getting some well needed rest. She floated up doing as Elora said in order to observe ahead of them attempting to spot if something might be ahead of them further up the stairs. That was when the trap was sprung as as Felicia noticed a little shake after Elora's shout as she told everyone to run.

Felicia floated up keeping a short distance away attempting to get a clear view ahead of her while also observing the others. A little bit of nerviousness filled her though she took a brief second to take a deep breath relaxing herself. She was worried should they all fall. It wasn't likely she could support all their weight. She hovered up as Elora shouted noticing a space in the wall. She floated up noticng how rather small it was biting her lip clearly not having much space should should slip in to give her more leeway on the weight she could manage to hold. Chance are it wouldn't add all that much more considering how much easier it was to levitate herself then it was other objects or people. She shook off the worry looking down as she spotted Qerres having slipped holding onto dear life. She floated down a bit getting closer.

"Don't resist and it will be much easier for me to lift you." She spoke out as a warning to her. She hadn't exactly been with any of her team members before so it wasn't likely they were familiar with her power. While she could lift someone up, the biggest issue with her power was the need for the person being taken control of to be willing to her causing them to float. If it was against their will it made the act much harder for her to do. Felicia opened her hand focusing her efforts on Qerres keeping herself as calm as possible. If she allowed her emotions to get too unstable she could accidentally crush her instead... better to not mention that.

Felicia's light began to surround Qerres as she began to lift her in the air slowly. Felicia used her hand to make sure to have better direct control as she worked to move Demon up to the gap in order for her to be grabbed and pulled in as the Esper remained hovering above the abyss attempting to keep an eye on the rest her other hand ready to grab anyone else should they take an unnecessary 'trip'.

Location: Why did it have to be trap stairs?
Mentioned:
Fable Morzone baddervibes DapperCat

 

[Fable]

(Let's get back to business~)

Tristan's Team

Xemanorth Thatguynameded Noble Scion Tarmagon June Verles r e i

Everything seemed to be calm once more. The swarm had completely ceased to move and only a few legs seemed to twitch as nerves reacted to the last pulses of whatever energy coursed through them. The team was now free to progress forward if they wanted or to go back the way they came... or rather back track after Kirill had rushed forward without actually thinking. The anger from the team was still thick in the air even after they had ended up the victors... this time.

Tristan groaned unhappily as his wounds sent pangs of pain. It wasn't enough to slow him down, but these injuries could have possibly been avoided had a certain someone not foolishly bull rushed through the halls to the trap. Tristan ever so calmly approached Kirill, holding up a hand to Calliea so she would let him speak. However, instead of speaking Tristan straight hit Kirill's jaw with an uppercut. "You pull that kind of fucking stunt again I will let you face the consequences of your actions alone. If we survive this hellhole you best be sure there are going to be some very unfavorable remarks."

He stared at Kirill and should the brute even twitch to attack him he was going to add a bit of a kinetic jaw breaker next punch. Tristan straightened his clothes as best as he could before he turned to regard the others. "The next time Kirill does something stupid, like run off on his own, none of you are to give chase. That is an order. If he thinks he can handle this place on his own, we're not going to bother knocking sense into him next time. Now then, quickly tend to your wounds as best you can. I don't want to stay here longer than needed. It smells awful and I don't want to find out if these things are going to revive for another round."

Tristan pulled out a small antiseptic spray and spritzed the exposed and open wounds. He pulled out a roll of black self-sticky bandage and wrapped the larger of the wounds to help protect them and stop the bleeding. He approached Jasper and clapped his shoulder in a friendly manner, "Good work."

After a five minute delay Tristan announced to the team they were moving forward rather than back and also told Kirill he was at the rear of the group now and that if he tried to rush past anyone they were free to stop him if they were so inclined, but not to chase after him. What greeted them was more of the same for a while, an endless maze of turns that seemed to not have an end, at least until they encountered a crossroads of sorts.

One of the halls was different from the others, the style of the stone had changed slightly. It appeared more like the ruins of a hallway compared to the others. Without a word Tristan continued down this different path rather than take more of the same. Something different was... different compared to continuing to be lost in that maze. This path didn't seem to go on for very long and at the further they went the more a light sourced seemed to be present.

There were a few steps they'd have to go up, but it wasn't even a full flight of them. However as soon as Tristan cautiously set foot on the first step the light shifted and figures appeared and blocked their path. One which seemed to be a female apparition. Tristan stepped back and readied his gun, aiming at her exposed chest. He wasn't sure it would do anything, but he'd shoot her at least once to find out and then swap to a different attack if needed.

She stood there silently as did the other figures lurking behind her. "Care to move darling?" he asked her causing her head to tilt slightly. "Places to be and all." He was only greeted by a long silence and Tristan sighed loudly. Just as he was about to speak again, very rudely, the figure took a step forward. "I've had a bad day, please don't make it any worse. Since you've not attacked first I assume there is something. No one fucking do a thing unless they attack," he ordered.

Elora's Team

Myriad Hanarei Morzone DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon

Elora stood ready at the opening to grab a hand if someone needed it to be pulled into the safety of the opening. Theo managed to get to safety which left most of the others to scramble in after him. The rest were mostly fine as they managed to get to the opening. However Qerres's fear of heights had stalled her when she looked down for a moment and was now dangling by her claws only. Felicia was prepared for this per Elora's earlier command and was already working on levitating Qerres to safety.

If Xaira had fallen she had wings that could hopefully catch her or at least break her fall should she plummet downwards. That just left Caddigan and Don. Don unfortunately did not make it to the opening in time before the stairs vanished from underfoot. "Don!" Elora shouted in a panicked tone as she witnessed the moment the stairs had fulled vanished into the wall and still continued to do so further up the seemingly endless wall of stairs.

Elora was unsure if Felicia could safely grab two targets at once and also equally unsure if Xaira could manage to swoop down to grab him before he fell out of reach. Rather than waste her breath barking orders she jumped out of the opening to fall after Don allowing the symbiote within her to alter her form. She'd honestly never tried to fly with another person like this, but she'd have to take the risk. Her skin changed from it's normal skin tone to a black, almost shiny, color as her fingers elongated and the black spread up her arms and down her back. Her shirt shreds and rips as black wings unfurl just as she managed to grab hold of Don, the weight of them both and the rate at which they had been failing straining the muscles of her arms, back, and wings.

After a steep fall and a few questionable feet where Elora thought she'd be unable to support both their weight she managed to regain control and glide to the wall using one arm to hold Don and the other to plunge black taloned fingers into the stone wall. They had fallen a fair distance, but they hadn't splattered onto the ground below. "You're going to have to crawl to my back and then wrap your arms around my neck a bit so I can climb up," she grunted out as she struggled to assist him to do as she said.

Once that was sorted she climbed the wall slowly and was glad she had managed to at least keep her bra on, though her shirt and everything else from her torso had been lost. She managed to get them both back to the opening and allowed whoever wanted to help pull Don up and herself do so without a word. The wings retracted though her arms and torso kept the strange skin and appearance as she sat down and leaned with had back against one of the stone walls.

"J-Just give me a moment to catch my breath after that," she coughed out and the blackness seemed to being to absorb back into her body. "Also, don't bug me with any questions about my body and does anyone happen to have an extra shirt? Or something I can just use like one?"

Elora sat there for a good for a good five minutes before she got back up on her feet. She could have rested a bit longer, but they couldn't waste any time. Hopefully they'd run into something that wore clothing so she could loot the shirt off it's body if someone in her team didn't have something to help out. Elora wasn't modest, but she didn't like when people bugged her about the scars on her body or the other matter either.

"Let's get going," she said. "We've only one direction to go." She lead the team down the short hallway, the breeze coming and going and the glow growing slightly as they reached the end. It was a large circular room and at the center of it was something disturbing and probably something they did not want to touch. It was a chained casket of some sort and every now and then something shuddered within and caused the chains to clink.

"Stick to the wall, see if you can find an opening or a door. Don't approach the casket or the center of the room." she ordered.

 

[Noble Scion]

The instant Sang saw the half-clad woman, her thoughts immediately turned to the half-demon amongst their ranks that had gotten them to their current position, and as she opened her mouth to speak all the obscenities she could think of that would make great uncle S'tan Red himself cringe at the sheer absurdity of her words, she stopped herself, and closed it once more, before thinking out her next words more carefully to not potentially provoke the being with the loud sounds of screaming demons.

"Half-breed. If you charge headfirst into that thing's chest, I will be finding another one of those infernal skull-spiders and PERSONALLY, be ramming it onto your head, perhaps it might even be enough to classify as sticking a brain on your shoulders." she spat before taking position behind Tristan and his gun, wisely choosing to not stand in front of its barrel and allowing the rest of her team to recuperate from what they'd been dealing with.

"That thing looks like a banshee or something.. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to get near it. Either we barge through and, I dunno, the idiot over there gets possessed and we... deal with him if that's what it does, or we go back the way we came and look for a different path. I don't envy your position, Trist'" Sang grumbled behind him, and waited, standing ready for what could potentially be an ambush from the thing before them.
Fable June Verles Xemanorth Tarmagon r e i Thatguynameded (Sorry for the shortness and lack of interaction, but I'm just trying to get back into it with this post)

 

[Xemanorth]

Kirill had, thankfully managed to control his frenzy at least for the moment by giving brief vent to it as opposed to bottling it up until it went off on its own. As a result, all that Tristan received in response to his statement was a careless waft of one of his gauntleted hands and a dismissive: "Yeah, yeah.". The half-demon's gaze turned to Tristan, then to his hand, then to Tristan, then back to his hand... something obviously off about the latter. His gaze then fell to the floor, making contact with a fleshy lump that strangely resembled his pinky finger, then his hand yet again.

"Well that ain't right- oh shit!" The half-breed cut himself off as blood started to fountain out of his stump in concentrated spurts, sporting quite the remarkable arc on that sanguine stream careening through the air and splattering over a nearby wall. The half-demon, thankfully, seemed to manage the injury for himself, at least initially. Though he usually was not the type to don a shirt with sleeves, the SMITED uniform he received seemed to come with a pair, one of which he swiftly tore off before firmly tying it around the base of what remained of his pinky to halt the blood flow at least for now.

"Not again..." Kirill uttered, somewhat worryingly perhaps as he squatted over his detached pinky finger and simply picked it up before dusting it off, placing it firmly within one of the many satchels and pouches lining his belt, after checking over it briefly and breathing a sigh of relief. The pain, remarkably, came far, far long after as the half-demon outs an abrupt hiss, shaking his burly arm about as if in an effort to do away with the pain. No such thing happened, however. All things considered, he seemed remarkably unphased for someone who had lost a digit, though based on his earlier mutterings, this very well may not have been the first time.

Seeing as his mind was a tad bit preoccupied, he only caught about a quarter of Sang's sentence, which part that was, well, that became evident enough when the half-demon snapped the fingers of his now better hand and pointed at the red demoness, having prepared the retort of a lifetime. "I'll run headfirst in your chest if you don't shut the hell up." Ah yes, he'd done it again, the wordsmith, the veritable artisan that was he. Moving swiftly on from his threat, the burly half-demon's attention turned to the situation and creature at hand. "Banshee seems a bit harsh, think she's just one of those "alternative goth" types. What are you doin' here anyway?" He asked, the last portion of his sentence evidently aimed at the apparition walking toward them.

( Fable , June Verles , r e i , Noble Scion , Tarmagon , Thatguynameded )

 

[Thatguynameded]

Ears perk up as Kirill gets punched upward, it seems like the pack leader is showing his dominance by punishing the lone wolf of the pack. Brass can sense it, everyone is mad at the half demon. He begins to lick his wounds as we pass each tunnel, he sniffs around to find any scents but he can only smell his team, the smell of blood, and many faint scents of something else. The smells are old, too old to distinct anything. When a smell becomes too old or faint it mixes in the dominating scent of the area and becomes untraceable. Brass begins to empty bags of beef jerky down his jaw making some obvious bag noises and some chewing that matches the random footsteps of the group. Once the team reach some new hallways Brass had gone through 4 bags of jerky, they were delicious.

The new path Tristan had taken had some light, thankfully it wasn't sudden or it may have hurt him. The team leader had stopped the group, Brass was eager to see what the new game or challenge is. It was a woman, it looked like something Brass has seen in the wilderness but this one seemed more dangerous than the ones brass encounters in the wild. This was one thing he knew about, It was a Spirit. The hairs on his body started to stand up almost triggering a wild animal sense of fight or flight. He was too focused on the Spirit to hear what his teammates where saying but he understood not to break the line and go past Tristan. Now on all fours with his hair standing he leans in to catch a scent but avoiding going past the Line.

Fable Noble Scion Xemanorth June Verles Tarmagon r e i

 

[Morzone]

Theo Myrsky
Fable Myriad DapperCat baddervibes DergTheDergon Hanarei
​

Theo had made it safely to the entrance after Elora, but it soon became clear Caddigan would be the only one able to repeat the feat. Qurres had panicked and the others were too far back to reach in time. Felica could Levitate Qurres, Xaira had her wings and could make do, but Don... Don had nothing. Nothing that could keep him from falling into the abyss they'd just climbed up. Theo had shouted for them to jump but it was too late. The mage couldn't tear his eyes from Don's expression as it vanished into the darkness below them. A cold chill spread though his body and mind as he stared at the spot where he'd last seen Don. Was that it? Was there nothing? He couldn't think- his mind was still trying to properly what he'd witnessed. But then Something shoved past him- jolting him from his trance. It was Elora- she'd jumped after Don! What- The word escaped his lips in surprise as his team leader suddenly flung themselves over the side, a strange black substance beginning to flow over their body. In a second she too had vanished into the darkness below. For a moment Theo stared after them, his ears strained to hear any signs of the two below them. Ignoring the rumbling of the steps disappearing in the distance above them now, he thought he could make out a soft, strange sound that he had no reference of. Likely whatever that black stuff had been... then a light thud of some bodies hitting something hard. Had Elora somehow gotten Don and herself over to a wall? Or had that been the floor they'd hit?

Elora? Don? Theo called downward, hoping for a response. What he heard back, distantly, was labored breathing. They were alive! Quickly Theo tossed a flare downward and saw the shape of Elora climbing the wall, supporting Don on her back. Thank the heavens. The weight gone from his shoulders Theo straightened up, his mind clearer now. Felicia was supporting Qurres and Xaira needed to get in as well. As she was levitated over, Theo grabbed Qurres and guided her onto solid ground away from the edge, both to avoid any chances of her seeing the drop again and panicking, and to make room for Xaira and Felicia to follow in.

Looks like we've all made it, one way or another. Theo said, trying to inject a little confidence into the air after the near disaster. He reached down and helped Pull Elora and Don up over the ledge onto solid ground. Elora seemed to be exhausted from climbing with Don on her back, A notion she reinforced a moment later with her request for a rest. And a shirt. It wasn't until the strange black substance had receded did Theo realize Elora's own shirt had vanished. What had happened to it he didn't know, but whatever the cause it was clearly gone. He wasn't particularly flustered by seeing her in just a Bra, it was hardly any different than seeing those female body-builders at the gym, but he found it difficult to keep himself from looking at the scars. For a moment he wavered between curiosity, both about the scars and the black substance that had allowed his team leader to save Don, and the sense not to bother someone about their own private business.

His sense won out. "Here, Take mine. It might be a little on the small side but it should fit well enough." Theo roughly pulled his shirt up and over his head, pausing for a moment only to make sure he wasn't pulling his mana stone necklace and the offering pouch off of his neck. Once untangled he offered the shirt to Elora. It felt a little weird to go shirtless in front of a bunch of people he didn't know, but he told himself it wasn't a big deal. All he had to do was imagine he'd accidently burnt it in some Fire-magic related fight. In truth though he felt less self conscious about his lack of shirt than he did about the two things hung around his neck. Even if the offering pouch was one of the fakes it felt kind of exposed against his bare skin. As for the mana stone... well hopefully no one would bother him about it.

A few minutes later they were back on the move. The short rest had done him good. Even with his strong legs, sprinting up several flights of stairs was exhausting work. But he'd caught his breath and they were on track. So far so good. The mage had taken out his crowbar, occasionally tapping the walls to make sure there weren't any illusions hiding other paths or dangers. No dangers did arise however, and soon they were all at the entrance of the new chamber. The glow kept the place lit, so he extinguished his own guiding flame. There's a lot of Dust and webbing in here, if we stir it up too much we'll have a hard time breathing. He warned. Upon Elora's command Theo moved along the edge of the chamber, keeping his back against the wall so as not to put the casket in a blind spot. As he side-stepped along the wall he held his crowbar out, tapping the wall ahead as he went.