The Still Before the Storm [Team Manifest Destiny] [The Silver Apples of the Moon, the Golden Apples

"Of course I will." Coral starts down the hallway. "We can't just kill a few demons and declare the situation over can we? Besides, the soldiers lost some of their comrades against the demons. It won't be fair for the fallen to go unavenged."
 
As the Exalts travel deeper into the hallway, the smell of burnt herbs begins to overwhelm the blood-ape musk. The corridor grows more roughly-hewn and jagged, apparently a simple widening of an existing rock crevice rather than the smooth paths above, and the twists and turns soon block the sounds of the soldiers. Ahead, however, a faint green light glows from around the corner, but the chanting has ceased altogether.
 
Tsuki drew her blade again, slowly as to avoid making any sound and she put her index against her mask to invite silence and discretion and right after her fist closed indicating them than they should not move any further.


She slowly approached the corner like a cat, and ventured a look around the corner.
 
Tsuki's gaze meets the glazed eyes of a man dressed in sorcerous robes, hunched over a cobbled-together altar. Surrounding him is a circle drawn in lines of chalk and shredded herbs, and the glow above him pulses like a heartbeat.


Like a rapidly slowing heartbeat, glinting off the blood spilling off the altar and the hilt of the knife in his throat.
 
Tsuki yelled


"Man injured !" She rushed towards the priest and tried to help him as best as she could, stopping the bleeding, trying to save his life... wether he was the cause of the summoning or just a victim was still to be determined, but saving his life would bring some insight into this chaos.


***


I'm no super healer, but I got some skills :roll:
 
As Tsuki reaches the collapsing man, his skin crackles like shattered glass, and the blood pooling on the altar begins to steam.


--------------------


Perception + awareness time!
 
Coral runs up after Tsuki, gasping at the sight of the man's wounds.


---


Per + Aware: 6 dice: 10,3,7,6,5,8; 4 successes
 
Marius frowns, his sword still drawn, watching the blood soak the man's robes. Expecting the worst - that the knife and the pooling blood is the last act of a desperate and penned in sorcerer, he readies himself in a defensive stance, moving slightly so his armored form keeps between his mate and the dying man.


---


Perception + Awareness on 6 dice:7,8, 9, 9,6, 3 - 4 success
 
Tsuki had seen many men die in manners that sometimes still haunts her nightmares.


Yet with the years she had learned how to deal with this in the present.


***


6xD10: 9 7 8 4 5 1 :3 suxx
 
Marius and Coral both hear the far-off patter of footsteps further down the tunnel, deep in the still darkness under the earth.


The sorcerer, so mazed now with cracks that he looks like old parchment, finally ceases even his dying twitches and lies still on the altar, his blood still steaming.
 
Marius looks down at the dead man, a scowl set on his serious features. His eyes flicker to his mate, a touch of worry in his eyes, and then cast down the hallway again.


"Why do I doubt this ends with this man's blood cooling on the floor?"


He looks down the passage where the noises are coming from, and turns, his sword held in a wary half-guard as he advances.
 
As Marius heads down the corridor, the scent of fresh-cut clover fills his nostrils, incongruous in the stony tunnels. Although the echoing footsteps do not falter, the light from the altar-candles quickly fades, and he finds it harder and harder to see.


Make an awareness roll, please?


As Tsuki inspects the dead man, a twist of smoke begins to pour off the bloody altar behind her, sliding along the floor like a cobra, a inky black mark beginning to glow on its hood as it hisses. She is just in time to see Coral freeze with shock on her beautiful face, while the smoke-serpent rears up and strikes, pouring down the Changing Moon's nostrils and through her parted lips until no more remains.


--------------------


Lore + Int!
 
Marius shifts his weight slightly and stops moving, feeling and listening to the movements of the air where his sight has failed.


----


Perception + Awareness on 6 dice: 7,6,10,4,1,8, - 4 successes
 
Although the darkness makes sight difficult, Marius senses the movement on the ground before him where a cluster of vines twists itself into knots. It doesn't appear to be dangerous, and in fact is beginning to slow its frantic motion.
 
A bare moment after the last hint of smoke vanishes, Coral coughs hard, her eyes watering. As she straightens up against the wall of the cave, she offers Tsuki a bright smile. "Glad I remembered how to do that," she says, her voice rough from coughing. "Those smoke-serpents are rarely a threat to those more powerful than a mortal, but it nearly caught me unawares." Clearing her throat one last time, she turns to go above-ground again, batting her long eyelashes over her shoulder at Tsuki. "I'm quite sure dear, dear Marius can handle himself, but would you check up on him? I feel the need for fresh air."


She seems fine, even chipper, but something niggles at Tsuki's mind: a near-forgotten passage in a tome so eroded by age that the young demon-hunter had found little helpful knowledge upon reading it years before. However, the title stood out in her memory, and a bit of concentration pushes it to the surface: "Librum Vorare".
 
Marius frowns, listening as the vines move. Slowly, he begins stepping backwards towards where he left the other two.
 
The footsteps ahead of Marius slow slightly as his own steps quiet, and the tangle of vines finally stills and goes limp. It looks to be a normal clump of vegetation- jasmine vines, in fact - but, of course, no plants could grow in this sunless tunnel. The squashed flower buds send up a faint aroma.


Back by the altar, Coral whisks herself upstairs with her usual sinuous grace.
 
There is a wrongness to this place... Marius thinks to himself, pondering the vines and the demon attack.
 
Tsuki


Coming back to Marius, Tsuki was preoccupied... something was off, the demons, the turned man... she was used to off, but not to this level of nonsense. And this would mean that she would start hunting for clues and making connections to get to the bottom of the story.


When she finally found Marius she was still caught by her thoughts.


"You alright soldier ?"
 
Marius grunts and shoulders his sword.


"Well enough, but this place is not right. Movement in the dark, an unseen summoner and just..." he shakes his head. "It is an unwell place."
 
Tsuki smirks and chuckles ironically.


"Just another day at the job... and you know what the sad part is, once it starts feeling wrong, it rarely feels right ever again.


Chasing and hunting down evil is my calling, my responsability... I'll get to the bottom of this story and make sure Justice finds its way to the ones responsible for this."
 
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