Tomb of the Lost

[Vaitris]

[OOC: Hau’s going to use the torch to investigate the hole in the wall. He’ll proceed down it if there is nothing obviously dangerous.]

Hau frowned down at the cabinet, there was little of help there. He briefly considered taking some the pages from the books Sara was flipping through and feeding them to the flame but that probably wouldn’t do much good in the long run. Help it for a second or two, but nothing more. There had to be other unlit torches somewhere in tomb, he had a difficult time believing this was the only one that existed in the whole place, but they might be hard pressed to find one before the one he held ran out.

"Another grey coming. I think they know where we are."

Hau’s jaw clenched, his lips parted to bare his teeth. How he wished he could change into his fox form, he’d be so much stronger. There was the faceless creature outside the middle door, the not-grey monsters outside the door Sarkany and the bat creature had come through, and now another beast out the last door. They were cornered. How long before one of those doors opened to let them in?

Sara was directing them all towards the little hole in the wall. He didn’t like the idea of it, but he liked the idea of staying here less. Best make use of what torchlight he had left. He crouched by it, sticking the torch in as far as he could reach just to see how much he could reveal. If there was nothing immediately threatening and if he could fit, he’d try to crawl in a ways and see if he can find the other end.

[MP]

Edge and Ari:
Edge's items: chipped knife simple knife, silver chain
Ari's items: hunting horn

As if in response to Edge's distress, there's another sound from within the bright disk. A muffled sob. To Ari, this vaguely resembles the sounds from the earlier well - a bubbling sound that seems to echo up from a deep, distant place. But this sound is more recognizable- a child's voice. 

Ever since he placed the figurine on the altar, Ari has begun to to feel a pressure in his head. It comes to the fore now, sitting behind his eyes like a headache. Only, this radiates outward, far beyond himself and into the depths of the tomb. A trail like a scent. Like a sound. He can feel the pressure - the presence - all throughout this place. Can track it, if he chooses. The mental ping is strongest somewhere beyond the lefthand door through which he saw the earlier grey figure. He gets the sense that something is concentrated there, beyond the water room. It leave an oily, unclean feeling on his mind. Edge senses it too - by now a familiar and unpleasantly growing sense.

But there's also the same pinprick feeling from before. Something beyond the water room is still chipping away at the concentration, each stab of it leaving a distant patch of calm. But it's a slow process. Beginning to falter.



Cassius:
Items: dying torch, sturdy rope, scholar's note 2, scholar's note 1

Cassius finds a familiar sight among the furs: a wolf's pelt. Not his own beast, but similar enough in size and shape to be comfortable. At the very least, it warms him against the cold tomb air. Only, as he pulls it over his shoulders, another pelt catches his eye. This one is larger than the wolf's skin, taken from an animal he doesn't recognize. The officer can see white, bristling fur - flawless except for a crusted brown stain over the slender head. It stands out from the common furs as he picks through the boxes.

Every ivory box he examines holds the same thing. More cakes, impossibly preserved despite the tomb's age. There are four in all, each fragrant with the same fresh-baked smell as before. The same hideous appearance. As before, the cakes are mouthwatering - better because these are comparatively pristine. Nothing has taken a bite.

The ivory boxes have the added benefit of being excellent bludgeoning objects. The statue's fingers are brittle with age, and the clay chips under repeated blows. First a fracture. Then a spiderweb of cracks. Finally a crumble of shattered clay, revealing something black and spidery beneath. There's a mummified hand inside the statue, curled around the little pouch. The texture is leathery, husklike, cracking as Cassius' efforts snaps one of the bony fingers. It's motionless as the pouch falls from its grip. Motionless when the pouch is retrieved and a scrap of vellum is pulled from within:

Those who are left are mad. Mad, and they cannot see it. They cannot know what they do, poor beasts, and mourn for the afflicted even as they are first to be consumed. Hallucinations and manifestations are only the earliest signs. And yet...there is a kind of strength in this madness. Do they not see to the truth of things? Their true natures? They may see what the others will not, and they are uniquely endowed to strike to the heart of it. That is not blindness, then, but strength. A strength that can serve us better than this waiting. I tell them this, but they refuse to see. They wait for a child when a savior already stands before us. It is not this boy who leads our armies. It is not the boy who holds our people together. The fools. But they will not see unless we force them. My prince - my king - is right. We must force them.

While Cassius extracts the pouch, the dragon is pushing through the righthand door. Over the crumble of clay and the crackle of ancient vellum and flesh, Cassius can hear familiar voices from the next room. Human. First Sara. And a few moments later, Sarkany. The former sounds tense. The latter urgent, almost alarmed. But thanks to the poor acoustics of the room and the thick stone walls, the officer can't make out anything beyond their tone. 



Draggo:
Items: broken flint necklace

Something white and doughy scuttles across the dragon's path as he pushes open the door. A low muttering fills his ears, deep and monotone. Human. He can see a door across from his, and another in the righthand wall. Both closed. The muttering comes from his left, where the room stretches away and a tall figure is seated at a small game table at the center of the floor. 

The figure is swathed in so many rags that he seems more like a growth than a living creature. But the bald crown of his head can be seen over the wrappings, pale and trailing white hair like wisps of cobweb. He's faced away from the dragon, hunched and muttering over the game board. There is furniture deeper within the room - a bookshelf along the same wall as the dragon's door. A squat cabinet along the wall opposite. There is a hole in the leftmost wall of the room, just big enough for a man to crawl inside. But to reach these, one would have to walk past the man's field of view. He's still hunched over the game board. Still muttering to himself, apparently oblivious to the dragon and the creatures already within the room. 

The dragon has found the pale rats again. The cabinet is alive with them. Doughlike bodies clamber over the shallow indentation in its surface. White shapes crawl beneath it and along the edges of the walls. They look wrong somehow, even for the unnatural bodies of the rats. Something about their movement. Their proportions. Their whispers sound like a sick imitation of speech. Some linger around the cabinet, pawing at a strange gold disk that matches the indentation in the cabinet's surface. Others are moving toward the tunnel in the left wall. They seem to laugh at the dragon, their words almost audible. Their bodies flickering strangely.



Sara, Hau, Kira, and Sarkany
Sara's items: old spear, broken knife, seeing stone, human effigy
Hau's items: maned pelt, dying torch
Kira's items: king's seal, carved fragment

The old man doesn't so much as twitch as Sara takes the effigy. His muttering continues deep and monotone as ever, a uncomfortable backdrop. But the moment Sara touches the figurine, a subtle assurance washes through her. She feels more connected to her surroundings. Aware of the stones beneath her and every crack between them. The objects around her, though solid as ever, seem somehow malleable, as if with a thought she could reach out and reshape them. 

Meanwhile, Sarkany looks at the outstretched disk in Kira's hand, almost absently. He's listening to something in the distance. Keeping the three doors in his peripherals. 

"Ah, yes." He gestures toward the cabinet Hau was examining moments before. Walks the burbat a few steps toward it, nodding at the indentation in its surface. Sure enough, the size and shape of Kira's golden seal, the sockets along the back of it, seem to match. "The table. Hurry now."

But he isn't really looking at it. He's standing between the burbat and the exits as if at guard, watching each door intently. His fingers are white around the effigy, but no matter how he holds it, his burns show no improvement - a stark contrast to the burbat. Kira's wing, though worn thin in places feels flightworthy. Her claw and leg are only a little scraped, and her jaw no longer hurts. Once she's done with the cabinet, a trip through the tunnel should be no problem for her.

But Sarkany's eyes sharpen as he hears Sara's ushering. He looks back from Kira's cabinet, from the doors, and notices Hau in the tunnel for the first time.

"Wait - " He starts forward. Stumbles badly, the cunning long gone from his stride.

"Vahi, st - there's a creature in there," he spits through gritted teeth. 

Hau has crawled in far enough to see a fork in the tunnel, several body lengths in. There is a branch leading left. The other leads straight ahead, though it's blocked by loose gravel that needs to be shifted before he can progress. He can hear the urgency in Sarkany's voice, back at the mouth of the tunnel. But it's impossible to turn around. The tunnel is so cramped that he can barely raise his head. The walls are tight around his arms and elbows, forcing him to move at a worming crawl. Backing out will be a difficult process, and so far there's no sign of anything to warrant Sarkany's alarm. Not in the tunnel at least.

Back in the room, a new sound overlays the old man's muttering. A panting breath. The rasp of nails over stone, loud enough that even Hau can hear it from within the tunnel. The door in the bookshelf wall is opening. Long white fingers are prying it wider. First ten. Then twenty. Then dozens, twitching and reaching and folding back on themselves. The creature dragging itself into the room is a tangle of arms. Its hands are folded over its face, curled around its body, bending in ways no human limbs should bend. A long pair of arms at its shoulders bear an extra joint, and these twitch and tense as if at any moment, the arms might strike out, snakelike.

Sarkany steps back toward Sara, knife in hand, looking from the water room door to the hand monstrosity to the tunnel in the wall. His eyes are cold and appraising, the same mirthless light in them as the night of Telmore's retrieval.

"Tunnel it is," he says, and nods the burbat, whatever she's currently doing, toward Sara. "Go on. I'll give you time."

[Sharei]

[OOC: Draggo tells Cassius about the rats being present and then comes into the room and sits down, trying to make himself as non-threatening as possible. He pats the ground in front of him to try and beckon them over.]


The juvenile paused just inside the threshold. Stared at the rats. Tried to control his breathing and told himself that they were supposed to be human, not featureless feather-thieves. That did beg the question: if they looked like rats to him, what did he look like to them? More rats? Something else? His gaze then moved to the muttering man, unblinking, registering his presence. Did he not notice the obvious commotion?

Was he a part of the maze? An enemy? A friend?

The dragon leaned back so that he could call into the treasure room. "Hey," he said to Cassius. "There are those... rat-human things here."

The dragon looked back at the blobby creatures. With deliberately slow motions he crept inside and sat down, just past the door, trying to be as non-hostile as possible. If these really were blob-rat-humans, they'd always run from him so far. He must appear as strange to them as they did to him.

The dragon reached out and gently patted the ground in front of him, as if beckoning.

[tsukikoko]

[OOC: Sara looks through the glass, sees that the creature is Draggo and tells Sarkany. Uses the same trick as with Edge to write 'It's Sarkany & Sara' in her own blood as quick as she can. Verbally makes sure Kira puts the seal in the table and with her new-found 'Spatial manipulation and spatial awareness on steroids', tries to carefully widen the tunnel Hau's in, to make it easier for him to come back or move forward as he chooses.]

Sara hadn't anticipated Hau going quite so far into the tunnel, but it was done now and there were more pressing things to focus on. Namely, what was coming through the door and the fact Sarkany was moving to intercept it, to 'give them time'. The shifter shook her head and stated,
"Tch, ya 'avin' a laugh mate. Ain't leavin' ya with it yet."
The creature, it's oddly contorted limbs and impossible movement, made the hairs on Sara's arms stand proud. But still she thought of Edge and Marchelute, how terrifying and suffocating the dark had been. Could this be... Again?

She raised the seeing stone to her eye, sucked in a sharp breath at the sight.

The young dragon.

"Wait, wait! Sarkany!" Sara threw an arm out, trying to make him take a step back. She just needed time. Her voice came out in a rush of words, talking as quickly as she could. "It's the youngling, the dragon, like. He divvint know it's us, just-"
She was on the ground next moment, digging the spear head into her tail, drawing fresh blood, swearing beneath her breath at the snap of pain as it shot through her nerves. But aside from that, she barely gave the wound a second thought. She had to act, fast.

The shifter's fingers flew, smearing her own blood across the stones as quickly as she could manage, scrawling out a desperate message before the youngling got too much closer. Who knew what she and the seraph looked like to him? If he mistakenly killed Sarkany, only to find that out later.. she couldn't imagine what that would do to him. She had to stop it.

She knew what she wanted to write. A simple,
It's Sarkany & Sara.
She just hoped the young dragon would be able to see it.

While she wrote, keeping her voice as calm but firm as she could, Sara spoke to Kira, knowing the winged one still had a job to do - based on what Sarkany had said prior.
"Make sure ya put the seal," she pointed to the object in Kira's grip, "in the table, like." A gesture at the relevant socket with her free hand was all the shifter could afford, the rest would be up to the burbat.

Then there was Hau, crawling along the tunnel, potentially alongside a creature based on what Sarkany had said. But was it another trapped soul, just like them? Regardless, she'd sent him in there, he could be in danger. An image of the effigy sprung to her mind, a pulse of connectivity sweeping through her, settling beneath her skin as though it had always belonged. The stones, previously so utterly impervious, now felt as though they might shift and bend to her whim. She reached out through the tunnel, feeling it in a way she'd never before experienced, but wasn't about to argue with.

Hoping to give him a way back to them if he needed, or the means to move forward if he wanted, Sara sought to widen Hau's tunnel, not by too much, lest she trigger some kind of collapse, but enough to give him wiggle room. Her tail reached towards the tunnel entrance, putting herself as close to it as she could, before the extension of her consciousness spread itself through the stone and attempted to reshape it. She felt an abstraction, somewhere within herself, a feeling she knew to hold on to, even if she didn't know exactly why. It was a connection to the power, something her energy fed and she felt as though if she severed that connection, her changes to the stone would falter as well.

[jarahamee]

[Cassius takes the note, the cakes, and the strange beast skin with him. He wraps the familiar wolf-skin around his body and then drapes the beast-skin over his shoulder, like a barbarian king. He then follows Draggo, hearing Sarkany's voice. Cassius addresses the game-board fellow and sees the blob-rats, reading their message. He then writes his own message. ]

Cassius pulled the skin free. If they were here, why not wear this hide? There was something warm and familiar about the strange white creature. He pulled the wolf hide free and draped it around his torso, securing it with his bag, and then draped the white skin over his head, tying the arms about his neck so the head covered his own. It felt good. Secure. Made him feel more protected than he should have felt, and perhaps things were better for it. He almost felt good now. His muscles tensed under his skin. The adrenaline reminded him of the hunt. It made him feel alive.

He removed the cakes from the ivory boxes, before taking the box to swing and strike at the fingers of the statue. There was a satisfying crunch, and then he removed the note. These statues were not statues, rather, bodies hidden within. No wonder they seemed so forbidding, but it was an unusual way to make a mausoleum. Did they want to have strangers destroy their monuments? It did seem that way with the manner of set up. Or perhaps, they were all to be sacrifices. It did not seem improbable.

Cassius was starting to read the note, when he noted the young dragon's hesitation.

He sensed the youngster was going to do something impulsive, the moment before he did. The young dragon lurched away from him and into the darkness of the next room without hesitation, before Cassius could say anything else, and why shouldn't he? They had to keep moving, and yet, what chance did they have of finding Sarkany? Apparently more than he would have deemed possible. He heard a familiar voice from the door beyond.

"Sarkany?"

He asked as if he imagined a response to his voice, but nothing responded, except the muttering of a stranger, and the darkness of a new room. Cassius looked for a new torch to light before his went out, dipping about. If he found nothing, he would try to light a piece of fabric to keep the flame alive. A shame about the lack of embers in his life.

"Hello?"

He asked the strange man, and then, noting no response, decided to move on to the other creatures in the room with them. He saw the shape of Draggo crouched before him, the rats, and the writing. So his gut was right. They were humans. They were humans he knew... And one who was not a human at all. And one of them was Draggo's father. So the child was right.

"... It's Sarkany and Sara."

He reads to Draggo from the wall, gesturing with a finger. He looked at all the rats, nearly identical, scurrying. The monsters were probably still coming after them, and would be lead to these humans before too long.

"One of these rats is your father, I gather, unless this is also an illusion of the tomb. I do not know if we can help them, or how they are rats."

As Cassius spoke, he turned to the wall , briefly lighting a wood chip with the torch, smearing some of its pitch to create an ink of sorts, and wrote above the door they entered in;

"Cassius and Sarkany's Son."

He searched the wall for any other torches to light, as his was becoming dim now. Soon he would have no light, and though he was comfortable in the darkness, he preferred to be able to see well. A weakness the Beast did not share. Perhaps he would have been safer wandering the dark alone, but maybe he would not have succeeded.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Kira moves to put the disc into the cabinet slot.]

Kira's pulling ceased almost immediately as both Sarkany began to lead her towards the cabinet and the sight of a dozen white hands appeared at the very door she'd been trying to go towards. A small, gulping squawk escaped her and she bumped lightly into Sarkany as she dodged obediently in the direction he was now leading her towards. His instruction, as well as the red-head Sara, was like a gunshot in her head, and she bolted towards the cabinet. Her hands fumbled clumsily with the disc as she shoved it at the slot. The pain in her jaw and wounds fled as if they too had seen the monsters and decided to vacate the area. Kira peered with building panic as the many-armed monster now entered the space, scratching and slapping at the ground as it drew closer. Her heart stampeded in her chest as she worked to line the disc up properly.

"Wait-" Sarkany said, drawing Kira's panicked attention now in that direction. The blue-haired man had begun to crawl into a tunnel that Kira had overlooked, and she had to fight every fiber of her being not to bolt after him. The space was exactly what she wanted right now, a small dark escape from all of the approaching dangers.

"Vahi, st- there's a creature in there" Sarkany hissed, and Kira let out a hopeless moan. They were indeed surrounded, it seemed. She could only pray that whatever this cabinet and disc could do, it would maybe open a new way for them.

[NightshadeVII]

[OOC: Edge pushes open the door to the water room again, thinking that it might be the best way to go. He stops the moment he remembers the name Ari and promptly asks a few more questions.]

Despite all the noise in his mind, the return of the sobbing didn’t go unnoticed by the Darai. Something was definitely down in that well, but he didn’t know if it was a good idea that it echoed his sobbing like that. He was getting so tired of all these questions, knowing he probably wouldn’t get any answers to them.
A part of him wanted to give up, to just sit down against a wall and not do jackshit. He didn’t have much reason to continue anyway, did he? The person he cared about most had died in this horrible place, and he had no idea how to get out of here, if that was even possible. If he had to be honest with himself, he was beginning to doubt that there was a way out of this place. It all seemed so pointless.

Then, the other person spoke, approaching slowly with his arms wrapped around himself, as if fearing that Edge would hurt him. Even though emotions had worn him down, it always hurt to see another person afraid of him. But then again, he looked like a mess, blisters across his face and arms, eyes red from crying, one hand covered in slightly dried blood and two knives in his belt. He didn’t exactly look like the most friendly guy around. Still, he listened when the other spoke, introducing himself and asking if they had met.
“No, I’m pretty sure you don’t. Edge.” He raised a hand to his chest, implying that he had just told the other his name. And yet, he spoke mechanically, as if he was far away, distanced and tired. His eyes, usually so deep and vibrant had dulled, becoming shadows of what they used to be.
“I won’t hurt you. I’m... trapped here like you.”

Brows furrowed slightly, a stiff movement, as Ari spoke, mentioning figurines. The altar room Edge remembered, so it would seem that there was meant to be something on it after all.
“Haven’t seen anything resembling figurines here, only these weird... pustules. If you feel a weird sense of pressure in your head, that’s them. At least I think so.” He said, walking over to the door he had just closed, “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what’s going on.”
For now, he didn’t really know where to do, if he even wanted to go anywhere. But despite the weird creature in the water, it seemed like it was the only way forward. At least the only way “forward” he had cared to find. Slowly and carefully, Edge pushed the door open again, hoping to be as quiet as possible, so as not to alert the creature in there.

But, for some reason, there was something about this newcomer, Ari, that he couldn’t shake. He was sure he had never seen or met this person before. He didn’t seem familiar in any way, in terms of voice, appearance and demeanor. So what was it then? It felt like he was grasping at a word on the top of his tongue or was trying to remember a face he had seen in a shop window. It had been brief, an easy to overlook encounter.
Then it came back to him. He hadn’t met the other, but he had seen his name before. Ari. He had been in the room with the fires, with Sara, where Marchelute had gotten so fatally injuried. But... what was he doing here then now?
“Wait... Ari.” Edge stopped, slowly turning to face the other again, “you... were with Sara before, weren’t you? Back in the room with the fire?”

[Vaitris]

[OOC: Hau takes one last look down each of the passages, searching for clues, before backing out of the tunnel.]

When he came to the fork in the tunnel, Hau hesitated and stopped. The passage was longer than he had imagined and had fewer hints where it might lead than he had hoped. Thrusting the torch down each of the branches but not making a move down either one, he tried to get an idea for how long each might be, if they canted up or down, if there were any traces of monsters (grey or otherwise), anything that might be helpful in deciding a direction. Maybe Sarkany could provide a rough direction for the sun-door, one of these passages might lead towards it.

He wasn’t overly concerned about the closeness of the walls, Hau had never been claustrophobic and logic held that if he had gotten in here he could squirm his way back out. But the voices behind him, the urgency in their tones, said he should probably leave instead of pressing forward despite his lingering curiosity. Then an ominous rasping sound echoed from behind him. Hau tensed, head knocking against the low ceiling of the tunnel as he tried to get a look behind him. It was impossible to see anything. His pulse picked up, something had happened and it couldn’t be good. Time to go. He should let Sara know what he’d found anyway. Carefully, he began to inch himself back towards the mouth of the tunnel.

[qhostqrowls]

[Flame Fao returns! Attempts to comfort Edge, and gives a hint to both him and Ari. Rolled an 18 to forcibly direct Edge's search, which may also effect Ari, depending on his vicinity to Edge]


Silently, a pale yellow flame spluttered to life between Ari and Edge. It gave no warmth or light - no searing heat, as the other flames had. It simply hovered, and flickered, harmless.

It trailed, slowly, towards to Edge. Pressed close to his side, hovering by his hand as if to comfort him.

"You can't give up, Airiah." A whispering voice emanated from the flame, undeniably that of Faolan's. It was tinged with his familiar tone of patient encouragement and a gentle love. It reminded the Darai of the way Faolan's expression softened when their eyes met. The warmth of his hugs. The faint curl of his lips into a smile. The flame burnt steadily, for those few seconds.  "You're so close. You shouldn't ...shouldn't…" There is a long moment of silence. The flame flickers, gutters. "-shouldn't blame yourself. It was too late. They didn't know."

Again, a long moment of silence. When he speaks again, it is with a sudden urgency, verging on desperation. 

"He's still down there. The rope, in this room...it will help you reach him." A focused conviction weighted each word. Edge was suddenly seized by a firm grip - an invisible, unbreakable hold that abruptly pulled him into the room and dunked him beneath the water. It did not hold him there, disappearing almost immediately. Ari, depending on how close he was standing to the Darai, would also find himself well within the room, pulled there by the little flame.

"Don't be afraid," Faolan's voice piped up. "But be quick..."

[kilnarak]

[ Ari talks to Edge a bit more, but when he feels a weird pull toward the water room he nopes back nearer the well. ]

The burbling crying from the depths of the well - depths he couldn't see, depths that were obscured by that disk of light - made Ari uncomfortable. He kept his distance from it, moving closer to the stranger. "Edge? What's that m- Oh, it's uh, it's your, uh, your name?"

"Right, right. Uh. I uh, I do kind of have a headache. B-But I mean, I had a headache before I uh, before I did whatever and came here. Too. There uh. There was a... tunnel here, earlier." Ari tried to find the tunnel he had come through before, but like the tunnels in the altar room, it seemed to have vanished in this version of the world.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, yeah I w-was. I uh. You were... you were in the room? A-And Marchelute? W-Where is he? Y-You're not together anymore?" Ari fidgeted a little nearer, biting his lower lip. "Th-The dark was suffocating us, s-so I... S-so we needed to make light. I-I may have g-gone a little overboard... Th-The statues tried to grab Sara..."

Just as he drew nearer, he saw the little yellow flame felt a weird pull forward, toward the doorway. He tensed, then reflexively pulled away, stumbling back away from Edge and the flame. No he didn't like that. "What- I-I don't think I want to go that way."

[Marshmallow]

[Marche loses patience with Edge, then tries to comfort Ari but maybe loses a bit of sanity and accidentally does a Grudge.]


Edge had stopped listening. He wept, he shouted, but he wasn't moving. He wasn't helping. And as the Darai collapsed upon himself in grief, the emerald flame guttered and flickered out with one last parting snarl.

A door ground open. Footsteps echoed in the vast chamber. A new voice spoke, and tentative greetings were exchanged.
It took... far too long for the familiarity of the voice to fully register. The stammering questions, faltering explanations... It was only when Ari fully spoke his name that he could remember.


The green flame sparked back into existence, hovering in the space between Ari and the blinding disk of light - the well.

"I'm here... I'm here..." Marchelute's voice seemed to whisper to Ari from all sides, a comforting murmur. The flame drifted closer, a ghostly presence reaching out to reconnect with its mate. The touch was weak, but... there was the faintest sensation across Ari's cheek, like the brush of a scaled hand.

"I couldn't find you. I'm sorry. I didn't know. I think I'm... Gone, now." The tone of his voice shifted down, heavy with gloom and regret. But the more he spoke, the sharper, more frantic the disembodied voice became. "But we aren't finished yet. The corruption, it spreads. It alters things. Makes it all seem wrong, different. I am ... We are... Trapped. Trapped here, until we- Until we fix it!"

Panic rose with a sense of impending dread. His awareness, like the flame itself, guttered and flickered. The thread frayed, frayed...

Snapped.



"The light. It was... You. It was..." The voice faltered. There was an anguished sound, a choking whine. 'It wasn't your fault' he wanted to say. That was it, right?

"It was-" Another hitch. The flame guttered, dimmed... Then flared brighter, twisted upon itself as though caught in a wind.

"It was.." Now the voice was angry, snarling. "Your fault."



Suddenly a force seized Ari’s throat, painfully tight as it lifted him from the floor.

“Your fault!” Marchelute’s voice roared. It was hardly Marchelute at all, just raw anger and heat and spiralling madness. “Your fault! You killed me!”

The invisible grip around the shifter’s throat yanked harshly to the side, pulling Ari from his feet and sending him hurtling across the empty room in rage.

[MP]

Cassius:
Items: dying torch, sturdy rope, scholar's note 2, scholar's note 1, wolf pelt, w̷̘͉͕̐̑h̷̯̺̾i̷̞̺̰͌t̶̛̯̲̂̕e̶̡̝̅ ̴͈̽͛̈́p̵̖̔e̷̟̭̾l̴̡̦̈̿t̸̰̙̾̕, hideous cake (4)

As he wraps the white pelt over his shoulders, Cassius feels a dull headache coming on - a chill that the pelts do nothing to warm. The next room is a large rectangular space stretching away and to the left. There is a door in the righthand wall, and another door opposite his own. There's a small game table to his left, set in the center of the room. A figure is seated there, wrapped in so many rags that he seems more like a growth than a human being. The bald crown of his head twitches, wisps of hair trailing as he mutters to himself. There is a ransacked bookshelf, an empty cabinet, a hole at the end of the room, past the muttering figure. But all these details seem peripheral to the officer.

His head throbs. For a moment, stepping through the doorway, Cassius sees a group of people standing at the far end of the room. Sara. Sarkany. A batlike creature by the cabinet, and the dragon crouching on the floor. For that moment he sees them. But their faces look wrong the longer he stares, features beginning to bleed like spilled yolk. And there's something off about the way their limbs move. Awkward, as though moved by joints that don't quite fit the skin. Not the real ones, says a stab of intuition.

Even as he reads the bloody writing to the dragon, as he explains the situation, the black conviction grows. His head is pounding, and the bristling white pelt is all that's holding it together. He's so angry. So hungry. And these pretenders crowd the room with their melting faces and their flat, waxen smiles. 

His message in pitch is scrawled above the door: "Cassius and Sarkany's Son." But this no longer matters. The the old man's sudden silence - the twisted pose of his body and the gaping hole of his mouth - doesn't matter. Even the grey mass pushing through the opposite door barely registers. 

With a sudden pang of clarity, of fusing hide around his skull, the officer understands how to escape the tomb. Understands what it is he was brought to do. The false humans swim in his vision. Liars. Prey. His friends were never here. The dragon was never here. The certainty throbs in his head, curdling into a single fevered thought: 

Kill them all.



Draggo:
Items: broken flint necklace

The rats mill about the hole. Pale bodies flicker beneath the cabinet. Many of the white shapes have already fled by the time the dragon kneels to pat the ground. But when the movement dies down, a few remain. There are three rats staring back at him - two by the hole, one by the cabinet. They whisper among themselves, conferring. Or maybe delaying.

Without warning, the muttering goes quiet. The old man is rigid at his table. His head is thrown back at an unnatural angle, mouth gaping at the ceiling in a featureless pit as if to scream. He makes no move toward the dragon. But he's no longer the only threat in the room.

The dragon heard the officer just behind him not moments before, translating the bloody writing. He can still see the officer's tarry response smeared across the wall. But the thing he's looking at is not Cassius. A massive white beast has come through the door behind him, sickle clawed, bloody-fanged, its fur bristling like quills around it. Hooded eyes turn in its narrow face, and its muzzle writhesback as it scents. It has the unmistakable reek of a predator, and it's uncomfortably close.

The back of the room isn't safe either. Another beast is crawling out from the walls, perhaps in response to the first. This one is dark-furred, heavy set. Deep red eyes stare out from its blunt tusked face. Every step carries a dangerous weight. 

As if this isn't enough, the stone door in the cabinet wall is grinding open. A third figure - is pushing into the room, more ponderous than the beasts, but no less threatening. Its grey, crusted face turns around the room, searching. Then with an almost mindless quality, it begins moving toward the dragon.

The mutter of rats sweeps through the room, almost but not quite understandable. They sound nervous. Uncertain. One claws at the air with flabby hands, uttering a garbled imitation of language.



Sara, Kira, and Sarkany:
Sara's items: old spear, broken knife, seeing stone, human effigy, runed heart
Kira's items: carved fragment, ornate key

As the many-limbed creature sees them, it lowers into a crouch, creeping forward. The movement is uncomfortably reminiscent of stalking. It hunkers in on itself like a spider, fingers twitching and tapping over doughy flesh. One hand claws down on the stone. A series of fleshy slaps and clicking nails. Sarkany risks a glance at Sara and the unremarkable stone in her hands, clearly skeptical.

"Vahi?"

But for the moment, he holds his ground. 

Over by the cabinet, there's a gentle click as Kira slots the seal into the hollow. The completed scene now depicts a crowned figure, regal, marked at the brow with a four-pointed star, standing at the center of the supplicating masses. The central figure is regal, calm, but strangely small compared to the others around it. Almost frail.

As the details sink in, there is a second click from deep within. The front of the cabinet swings open to reveal a small plain vault and a lone metal key. It's plain at the bow end, meant for gripping and nothing else. But the end of the key is ornate and geometric, a beautiful, twisting design for an equally beautiful lock. The vault gives it up without so much as a creak. In fact, there's no sound in the room at all. 

The muttering has stopped. 

The old man is rigid in his seat. His head is thrown back at an unnatural angle, the cords standing out in his neck. Blank white eyes fixed on the ceiling. His mouth is a featureless hole, parted as if to scream. 

Instead, it's the door in the bookshelf wall that opens. The thing that pushes through is a massive creature with bristling white fur. Its claws flex over stone. Its lips writhe back to reveal bloodstained jaws. The narrowed eyes move over them. Turn to something past them. 

Hau hasn't emerged from the tunnel. Instead, there's a second beast pulling itself from the tunnel, this one black-furred. Blunt-faced and tusked. Watching its white-furred counterpart.

As if the situation couldn't get any worse, the door in the cabinet wall is opening too. A grey, crusted face pushes through. The shapeless body follows. It sways on formless legs, seeming to search the room, then begins a slow, lumbering walk toward the pale mass of limbs.

"Come," Sarkany says, seeming to make up his mind. He's staring fixedly at the hand beast. Steps forward and beckons to it, though he still holds his knife. "Come here."



Hau:
Items: m̴̖̈́a̵̧͍̒n̷̩͌̋ë̸̛̜̭͖̈́̀́ḑ̸̜͙̱̓̽͊̈́ ̷͈͈̿͂̆ͅp̶̛̘e̷͖̠͖̹̽̔̀͝l̶̢̺̟̪͆́͝t̶̝̭̹͓̑̑͌͝ͅ, dead torch

Hau's parting glance down the tunnel reveals another detail: the thick coat of dust on the floor has been disturbed in a wide swath, leading around the left corner and out of sight. Something was dragged this way. Or crawled there. Whether it was coming or going, it's impossible to say. And with that final glimpse, the torch light dies altogether. Sara's efforts have made it easier for Hau to retreat, even in darkness. But he can feel the stone beginning to close back in. Can feel something warm steadying closing in around his skin. Apparently, the walls of the tomb aren't affected for long. 

When Hau emerges from the tunnel, the walls are the least of his worries. Kira, Sara, and Sarkany are staring at a roomful of monsters. While he was in the tunnel, it seems they've been surrounded from almost every angle.

A white, bristling beast stands by the righthand door, all curving claws and bloodstained jaws. Strangely, the sight of it fills Hau with a rush of purpose rather than dread. He feels powerful. Feels sure. Feels the warmth and press of the pelt around him. He can fight this. He can protect them all. 

A white cocoon of limbs, tangled arms and twitching hands, is hunkered by the game table, clawing at the ground. This too inspires confidence - fills him with the same sense of purpose. Sarkany is waving to it, calling it over, it seems. 

Finally, by the lefthand door, a grey, crusted mass is pushing through. Its steps are slow and ponderous. It towers over the other monsters as it rises to its full height. But it doesn't come for them right away. Instead, it begins a slow, mindless march toward the tangle of limbs - the nearest living thing aside from the old man.

That's when the silence becomes apparent. The muttering has stopped. The man sits with his head thrown back at an unnatural angle, white eyes rolled upward, throat pulled taut as if to scream. The black pit of his mouth is angled toward the tunnel's mouth. Perhaps the unnatural rigor is the reason the grey monstrosity ignores him.



Ari and Edge:
Ari's items: hunting horn
Edge's items: chipped knife, simple knife, silver chain

Edge has one brief look at the far door before his feet go out from under him. It's currently open. There's movement there: a grey crusted shape leaving the water room and pushing through to the next. He's safe, for the moment, it seems.

Then tarry water closes over him, filling his nose and mouth. Dim shapes swirl beneath the surface, just visible if he stares. Old bones and spongy corpses lying along the bottom. Old debris and a large crusted mass in the left corner of the pool. The outline of a box near the submerged statue, no larger than his torso. This much he can see. And then his own buoyancy and the need for breath draws him back to the surface. It may take several dives to free anything from the sludge. The water is murky and much too deep to wade. 

With the Darai's unexpected plunge into the water, there's no one to witness what happens to Ari. He's thrown across the well room, out of the doorway, out of Edge's sight. What happens now is between him and the crazed voice in the flame.  

[kilnarak]

[ Ari gets thrown, then curls up into a pathetic ball on the floor. ]

Ari flinched a little when another flame sparked into existence between he and Edge, uncertain of what it meant. The red flame, before, hadn't seemed to do anything, but the yellow flame just now had tried to do something to him and to Edge. He was about to call out to the dark-haired man when a voice whispered in his mind. Ari froze again, looking around, trying to find the source of the voice. He felt the brush of a hand against his cheek, unseen, but he still found himself leaning toward it.

"M-Marche...? You..." His breath hitched in his throat, and his gaze continued to search the room for his mate, wild-eyed. "Y-You- No, no! It- We'll wake up, like-like the other times!" His voice started low, small, but it rose into a slight whine as he continued.

"I-I didn't mean to h-hurt you. Th-The darkness was hurting us, w-was going to kill Sara," he began to explain when the voice mentioned the light. He knew what it meant, hated the way the voice hitched and choked, the way the flame guttered. He stepped toward it, reaching out as if to cup it in his hands. And then Marchelute's voice snarled, blaming him, and the guilt was near suffocating.

"I-I didn't mean-!" He wasn't able to finish the thought. He felt something close around his throat, choking him, and then found himself abruptly wrenched off his feet, lifting from the floor. He reached up to claw at the grip on his throat - but there was nothing there, no hold to loosen. Blame roared in his ears, and he flinched, tears streaming down his face. "I-I'm sor-sor-sorry! P-please, I didn't mean t-to-"

There was a sense of tension and then suddenly he was flying away from the flame, thrown across the room. His back struck the wall hard, the breath leaving his lungs in a sharp rush. Stunned, he slumped against the wall, wide-eyes staring at nothing, staring at the flame. And then he flinched and curled on the floor, tucking his head down, arms and legs in, making himself small. A whimper rose in his throat. He didn't want to die but... he deserved this, didn't he? "I-I'm sorry! I'm sor-sorry! P-please!"

[tsukikoko]

[OOC: Sara attempts to hold the grey crusted creature, since it was the first one to actively start moving, with spacial manip powers long enough for someone (likely Kira) to grab the stuff from the vault. Ushers for people to hurry since she isn't sure how long she can hold it.]

[NightshadeVII]

[OOC: More emotion, and then Edge is dunked in the water. He tries to get the box open or drag it out of the water, taking as many trips down to the box and up to get air as it takes. Keeps an eye out for any other potentially useful items. He uses his tail to better manouver underwater and move faster.]

When the other flame flickered to life, Edge braced himself, once again preparing for a pain that never came. This flame was different though, a soft, pale, golden colour, it’s light soothing and almost familiar. It brought a sense of comfort with it, and yet, unlike the flame representing Marchelute, this one didn’t speak, at least not yet.

Then it began to approach, hovering by him, pressing against his side, a soft, comforting presence. Slowly he noticed a sensation by his hand, as if the flame somehow held it gently, yet, when he looked down, there was nothing.
You can’t give up, Aiarih.
Faolan. That... that was Faolan. He was here. Through the fire? Tears began welling up in his eyes, blurring his vision again as he started to shake. His throat knotted up, his chest suddenly feeling so tight again. It felt so wrong to have Faolan be here, talking to him, and yet, he was dead. There were no beautiful golden eyes to look into, no soft hand to hold. Different emotions washed over him as well, seemingly emanating from Faolan’s flame. A patient encouragement and gentle love that belonged to Faolan alone. Familiar feelings bubbled to life in his chest again, the way his heart skipped a beat every time the Faolan smiled at him, the moment his expression softened the night they first met, the way the blonde’s laughter made Edge weak in the knees. On one side, he was so happy to just hear his boyfriend’s voice, but knowing that he was dead, and there was nothing that could change that, turned that brief moment of happiness into crushing grief.
The Darai lifted a hand to cover his mouth, muffling the quiet sobs. His shoulders shook and eyes closed, more tears spilling down his cheeks. He couldn’t do this. It was too much.

“I’m so sorry, Aiarih- I’m so, so sorry-”, he managed to choke out, hiccuping as he spoke, stumbling over words and barely remembering to breathe, “I shouldn’t... I shouldn’t have wasted so much time- I should’ve come to find you faster- you didn’t- you didn’t have to die!”
Again, his breath came in ragged pants, chest rising and falling heavily. It looked almost painful.

“I can’t do-!”, Edge didn’t have time to finish his sentence before some force practically threw him into the water room. For a moment, the sound of water was all he could hear, bubbles rising in front of his eyes. Before he could react, he accidentally swallowed some of the murky water, gagging as the taste of decay and algae hit him. Everything was disorienting, a mess of sensory inputs that were almost impossible to identify. The Darai could barely tell which was was up and which way was down. For a moment, he feared that he would drop here, as the force holding him down seemed keen on keeping him this way, but then, the sensation vanished, and he rose to the surface, coughing and spitting out murky water, his lungs greedily filling with air.
When he had finally recovered and gotten his bearings, Edge looked around, thankful to see that the creature from before weren’t here anymore. Soon after he noticed the bodies, grimly noting that that explained why the water tasted of decay. However, he couldn’t see any rope here, among the rubble and bodies. There was a box down there however. So perhaps the rope was there. At the moment it seemed like the only place it could be.

Behind him, Faolan encouraging him to get this over with quickly. Edge turned back towards the direction the sound was coming from and nodded. Without even thinking, his tail unfurled behind him, flicking in the watr, testing it. Granted, it wasn’t exactly made for swimming, but it would give him a slight advantage.
Then the Darai took a deep breath and went under, kicking forward and swimming towards the box. He wasted no time getting to work. All at once, his fingers try to to dig it out, while his eyes look for any kind of locking mechanism or any clue as to what’s inside or how to open it. It took longer than he expected, and soon he ran out of air, quickly surfacing again. Here he took a moment, catching his breath, preparing himself to go under again. One last deep breath, and he disappeared under the surface, repeating the process. He would repeat it as many times as needed to either open the box or get it out of the water, while also keeping an eye out for anything in the water that might be useful.

[Vaitris]

[OOC: Hau is filled with confidence and is ready to fight all the things. He moves between Sarkany and the many-handed monster and changes into fox form.]

It was worse than he expected, so much worse. Hau had guessed one horrible beast might slither through the doors at the far end of the room, maybe two in his darkest imaginings, but when he finally managed to free himself from the hole and stand it was to see three of them. Worse yet, none were the faceless thing that he had Sara had just fled from, meaning that one was still lingering outside the middle door, perhaps only moments away from joining them as well.

But he wasn’t scared. In fact, he felt energized and confident, ready to strike back. He was tired of running, of hiding, of being afraid for his life or someone else’s. It was time to end this once and for all and he could do it. He just needed a weapon. The torch had gone out and the remaining fragment of wood wouldn’t do him any good, so he dropped it. He hadn’t found anything in his earlier search of the room that had might make a viable weapon. Not that he really needed anything of the sort. The fox inside him was just as eager, seething underneath his skin. Let it loose and it would solve all these problems. It would save everyone. It was just that simple.

The many-handed monstrosity was closest, though the bristly white beast seemed an equal threat it was still a bit further away. Hau rushed to place himself between Sarkany and the hand beast, crouching low as he let the transformation take hold. So sure of himself, he didn’t hear the words of his companions. He didn’t think to question where this bizarre confidence was coming from. And any thought of consequences utterly slipped from his mind, like the effect this might have on his injuries or the fact that the blue fire that always marked his change would burn away anything he was wearing as it consumed him.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Kira grabs the key, pulls frantically at Sarkany and points to the door that the grey came out of.  She beckons for the others to follow her, and will make her way towards the door either way, hugging the wall in a crouch.]

Kira marveled for a brief moment as the images on the disc lined up with the images on the cabinet, something she would have spent at least an hour staring at if her life hadn't been in immediate peril.

When the cabinet swung open, Kira pried at the door and then pawed at whatever was inside. Some sort of box, and within was another object she wasn't entirely familiar with. She grabbed it with a swipe of her hand and spun around to the others. What she saw made her stomach drop almost to her feet.

Two enormous monsters had now joined the third, and shortly after the same lumbering grey thing as well. Kira's legs felt like ice, and she suddenly felt very small, very weak. Ever door loomed behind each danger, and she saw no hope anymore that any of them would escape unless they somehow managed to get to the doors. She watched the grey thing begin to approach the arm-monster and felt her hope flicker back. Pulling frantically at the man Sarkany's arm, she pointed at the door behind the grey thing. It was an open way, and perhaps their only chance of escape from this room in the moment. Her eyes were wide and terrified all over again, and the key was clutched in a death grip in her hand. If Sarkany didn't immediately follow her pull, she would make her own way towards the door, shoving herself to the wall and keeping low in a crouch while looking back and beckoning for them to hurry. It would mean going back into the water room, but she wondered if she could follow the same path she had followed before, as unpleasant as it was, then perhaps they had a chance.

[jarahamee]

[OOC: Cassius uses his last little bit of humanity to urge himself to attack the gray creature. He fails and instead attacks Hau, ursurped Beast and the rage of the monster.]

Cassius felt his focus fading as the anger and dull pain descended onto his body with the skin. It had enveloped him, but the feeling lacked the joy he felt when he transformed. More than that, it divorced himself from his purpose. He was here to protect. He was not here to kill. He had been forbidden to kill, and yet, his focus was slipping, as surely and clearly as anything else in his life. He was going to fail, and he was going to devour all of them. That was always the goal wasn't it? To devour everyone and everything. He felt the anger rising, but why was he angry? The slaughter had always felt good, filled him with joy and hunger.

The monster that was not quite Cassius lurched forward. driven. He had to attack. They were all frauds, they would all die. Cassius, or whatever might have called itself by his name, would not be here much longer. His hold on his being was sliding, soon there would only be violence and monstrous nature remaining. He had always been a fool, hadn't he?

Whatever passed as his last thoughts were an unfocused mess as his slights narrowed on the other monster in the room, Hau. This creature was a threat to him, perhaps even could kill him. If he killed it first, he could deal with the others at his leisure, and that was the point of all of this now, wasn't it? His strength felt effortless, but it did not feel good. Perhaps if he filled his belly, it would. There was so much to devour here. Perhaps when he was done, he would eat everything else in this forsaken tomb.

The Beast dropped the bag with the trinkets he had collected on the ground, and lunged for the black creature, aiming to tear out its throat. He had experience on his side, and he knew how to best a foe in any of his forms.

[Sharei]

[OOC: Draggo tries to get to Sarky and the others while running from monsters.]


Sarkany and Sara! The relief the juvenile felt at their lucky find nearly sapped the strength right out of him, like a tightly wound string finally allowed to rest. Unfortunately, the sensation was short-lived. No sooner had Cassius read the message aloud than he was replaced by the massive white beast, seemingly consumed by the fur he'd worn to protect him. The juvenile's mouth opened in shock and no small amount of terror.

The dragon skittered away at once and moved toward the outstretched, flabby hand of the rat nearest, but skidded to a halt as the black beast put itself between them. Heart hammering in his chest,  the dragon veered away and nearly into the grey, crusty-faced creature emerging from yet another opening. He yelped, a high pitched pup's call of alarm, and bolted for the opening provided by the white beast and the black beast colliding. The juvenile could only hope to be quick enough.

[Marshmallow]

[Marche-ghost has gone insane. Yells at Ari, threatens him, but then also tries to urge him to leave the room before he can kill him.]


"Didn't mean it?" the twisted voice in the flame spat the words with venomous hatred. "Didn't mean it?! Liar! You exulted in it!" The fire flared brighter and larger, fueled by an incomprehnsible rage and madness that seemed not his own. "You- You stole my flame, and recklessly you spent it! Squandered it! And to do what? Kill statues? To kill what was already dead?" He laughed then. It was a horrible, distorted sound that could have been mistaken for sobbing under another context.

"Have you any idea what you did to me?! What I felt!? You murdered me! Murdered me, and now you've left me to rot in this place!"

It was Marchelute's voice. The flame was like his own, emerald with a sulfurous-yellow core. But it was so unlike him at the same time. In life, even at his angriest, the ifrit had never shouted with such a vile hate at anyone except the most deserving of true monsters. It was so terribly wrong that he should be spewing such vitriol at his own mate, but the threads of his consciousness had snapped - the tomb had taken his life, and now his sanity it seemed.



'We'll wake up ... Like the other times.'

We'll wake up.

Wake up.



The sobbing-laugh sound came again. It was broken, choked back and then smothered under a bestial whine. He sounded like a beast in pain.

"You... need to leave," the voice hissed as though through clenched teeth. "Leave. Leave now." He tried to reach out, to grab for Ari again. But somehow he seemed to lack the strength to lift the shifter a second time. The force was a weak hold, a desperate but frail tug on Ari's arm toward the water door.

More sobbing, more growling. A seething, supernatural hate battled with what fading shreds of Marchelute's mind remained. And then he was roaring again. "Leave, now! Get out! Get out, or it will- or I will kill you, too! Get out!"